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RESOURCE GUIDEApplies to: Saudi ArabiaSchoolOS
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International School Licensing in Saudi Arabia: Requirements and Ongoing Reporting

What it takes to licence and keep an international school in Saudi Arabia: approvals, national identity subjects, Noor submissions, fees and renewal.

Author:Bosco Sabu John
11 min read

International School Licensing in Saudi Arabia: Requirements and Ongoing Reporting

A non-government school in Saudi Arabia needs a Ministry of Education licence tied to a specific premises, curriculum and stage range. The licence rests on municipal and safety approvals, an approved curriculum carrying national identity subjects, licensed teachers, fees registered a year ahead, and continuous data submission through Noor.

This is for the person who holds the licence file together: a school director, a group operations lead, or an investor's project manager standing up a second campus. It sets out the sequence of approvals, who owns each, what evidence sits behind it, and what triggers a re-approval. The base underneath all of it changed in July and August 2026.

Three categories, and why the category decides everything

The instrument you sit under determines who you may enrol and what you may teach.

Private schools (المدارس الأهلية) were governed by the Private Schools Organisation Regulation, Council of Ministers Resolution 1006 dated 13/8/1395H: privately or non-profit owned, teaching the national curriculum, enrolling Saudi and non-Saudi students without restriction.

Foreign schools (المدارس الأجنبية) were governed by their own regulation, Council of Ministers Resolution 26 dated 4/2/1418H. Article 1 defines them as schools applying curricula other than the Saudi curriculum; Article 2 scopes them to resident expatriate communities. Article 5, as amended by Resolution 220 dated 10/8/1424H, bars Saudi nationals except students returning from abroad whose circumstances prevent enrolment in a Saudi school, and that exception needs the Minister's approval, granted annually. Article 7 limits them to kindergarten through secondary. Article 6 makes the licence a ministerial decision on the recommendation of a supervisory council, which Article 8 constitutes under the Minister with representation from Interior and Foreign Affairs, and Article 9 puts tuition rates in that council's hands.

International schools (المدارس العالمية) are the category most operators mean. The Ministry publishes its regulations for private and international schools as a single set, which is the practical tell: they are licensed on the private school track carrying a foreign curriculum, rather than under the foreign schools instrument with its embassy linkage and enrolment bar. Get this wrong at application stage and you rebuild the business case, because a foreign school cannot lawfully plan admissions around Saudi nationals. [NEEDS SOURCE: a primary Ministry definition of "international school" (مدرسة عالمية) distinguishing it from أهلية and أجنبية, and the current rule on Saudi enrolment in one]

What changed in 2026, and when it bites

A new General Education Law (نظام التعليم العام) was approved by Council of Ministers Resolution 103 dated 22/01/1448H, 24 July 2026 and published in Umm Al-Qura on 1 Rabi' al-Awwal 1448 (14 August 2026). Its 68 articles expressly repeal Resolution 1006 (private schools), Resolution 26 (foreign schools) and Resolution 175 dated 15/6/1422H (private school principals). Article 68 brings it into force 180 days after publication. [NEEDS SOURCE: the exact commencement date; 180 days from 14 August 2026 gives roughly 10 February 2027, but a published legal analysis put commencement near 20 January 2027]

The provisions that reshape a licence file:

  • Article 30: private institutions must hold accreditation from the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) or an internationally recognised accrediting body, and take part in the assessments the commission runs.
  • Article 31: private schools must teach the national identity subjects set by the National Curriculum Center alongside any internationally recognised curriculum adopted with the Ministry's agreement.
  • Article 32: the Ministry licenses, and must respond within 30 days with reasons if it refuses.
  • Article 33: no transfer or assignment of ownership without prior Ministry approval.
  • Article 35: the Ministry sets fee standards and puts them to the Council; schools set fees within them.
  • Article 60: warning, suspension of student enrolment, a fine of not less than SAR 5,000 and not more than SAR 50,000, or licence revocation, with a school that loses its licence funding students' completion of the year. Implementing regulations are still to follow. Until they land, the operative detail (renewal cycles, licence fees, evidence formats) sits in the Ministry services and circulars below.

The licensing application, in the order it actually runs

The licensing service runs through the Educational Investment Services Center, reached from the Tarkhees service page. The English and Arabic pages describe the same portal but publish different closure times: ten working days on one, five on the other.

  1. Secure the corporate vehicle. Register the company and obtain the commercial register entry naming educational activity. A foreign investor additionally needs an investment licence first. [NEEDS SOURCE: the Ministry of Investment licence class, conditions and fees applicable to a school operator, from misa.gov.sa]
  2. Appoint the consulting office. The Arabic service page makes this a precondition: the applicant delegates a consulting office holding Saudi Council of Engineers certification. That office, not the investor, drives the premises submission.
  3. Create the investor account on the Educational Investment Services Center portal.
  4. Register the company using "Add Company", entering commercial register data.
  5. Register the school using "Add School": name, stages applied for, gender segments, curriculum and premises. The stage range entered here is the range the licence carries; adding a stage later is a licence amendment, not an internal decision.
  6. Attach the premises evidence: commercial register, survey report, and the stage and premises approvals.
  7. Clear the municipal and safety approvals. The Ministry of Municipalities and Housing issued municipal requirements for private educational buildings on 8 June 2026: a site on two streets with at least one at 25 metres wide (nurseries in independent buildings may sit on a single street of at least 15 metres), and a minimum area per student of not less than 4 square metres in kindergarten, rising to 5 square metres in educational complexes. Civil Defence safety approval is a separate gate. [NEEDS SOURCE: the Civil Defence safety licence class for educational occupancies, its validity period and renewal interval, from 998.gov.sa]
  8. Submit the curriculum for approval, including the national identity subject plan.
  9. Submit and track. The service is free and the support line is 19996; the portal operates 07:30 to 14:30.
  10. On approval, get the school onto Noor and register fees. Neither is optional.

Steps 7 and 10 are where schedules break. A premises can be structurally ready while the safety file is still in review, and admissions cannot open on a promise.

Curriculum approval and the national identity subjects

An international curriculum does not exempt a school from Saudi content. Article 13 of the Foreign Schools Regulation required the principles of Arabic language, Islamic civilisation, and the Kingdom's history and geography, at not less than one hour a week. In May 2013 the Ministry's executive committee extended the same obligation to international and private schools, with Saudi students taught in Arabic and non-Saudi students permitted English. Article 31 of the new law replaces the hour-based framing with national identity subjects specified by the National Curriculum Center: a defined syllabus rather than a time allocation. The timetable must carry a named subject with a named teacher, an assessment record and a reporting line, not a pastoral slot. [NEEDS SOURCE: the National Curriculum Center's published national identity subject specification, hours and assessment requirements for schools teaching international curricula]

Teachers, licences and Saudisation

Teachers in private schools must hold a valid professional teaching licence, issued through ETEC's professional licensing route. [NEEDS SOURCE: licence ranks, validity, pass thresholds, fees, and the position of expatriate teachers recruited mid-year, from etec.gov.sa, which returned robots restrictions during research]

Saudisation is a separate control run by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. A requirement effective 13 August 2023 set a 50 per cent Saudi threshold for teachers of Arabic, Islamic studies and social studies at primary, intermediate and secondary level, with a four-month adjustment period, and expressly did not apply to schools teaching an international curriculum. That exemption is the most misquoted rule in the sector: it exempts the international programme, not the school from every nationalisation rule attaching to its other roles. [NEEDS SOURCE: the current MHRSD Saudisation decision text and percentages applicable to international schools in 2026]

Noor, and what a licensed school submits through it

Noor is the Ministry's central education information system, running since 2011, with distinct roles for student, guardian, school administrator, teacher, educational supervisor, education department employee and ministry employee. Private and international schools are inside it, not alongside it: the Ministry's fee service makes "the school is registered in the Noor system" a precondition for submitting a tuition proposal at all.

A licensed school keeps current in Noor its enrolment records against national ID or iqama, class and section allocation, attendance, assessment results, and the movements that generate certificates and transfers. A certificate issued abroad must pass equivalency: the Ministry's rules require originals free of erasure, certified translation where the language is neither Arabic nor English, and authentication by the issuing country's education ministry, its foreign ministry, and the Saudi embassy and cultural attaché where available. Regional education departments process these through the Aamali system.

[NEEDS SOURCE: the Ministry's published Noor submission windows for private and international schools (enrolment cut-off, results entry, end-of-year closure)]

Fees are registered a year ahead, not agreed in August

The Organisational Controls for Tuition Fees in Private Schools, issued under Resolution 440075353504 dated 2/7/1444H, set the mechanics. Schools register fees and any change through the Private Education Portal one year before the start of the academic year. Modifications are not accepted after that period and increases during an academic year are prohibited. Parents must be notified at least a year in advance. The Ministry publishes the official school fee list and that list is the reference in a dispute. The controls are reviewed every two years. The corresponding service, "Request to Determine Tuition Fees", routes a submission through the education department committee, then the provincial committee, then ministerial approval, notified by SMS and on the portal dashboard.

[NEEDS SOURCE: any maximum tuition by school category; figures of SAR 40,000 (private) and SAR 60,000 (international) circulate in Saudi press but were not verified against a Ministry or gazette source]

Requirement, authority, evidence, renewal trigger

RequirementAuthorityEvidence the file must carryRe-approval trigger
Change of school ownershipMinistry of Education (Art. 33)Prior written Ministry approval before transferAny sale, assignment or change of controlling owner
Premises suitabilityMinistry of Municipalities and HousingSurvey report from a Saudi Council of Engineers certified office; site and per-student area complianceRelocation, extension, added floor or stage
Fire and life safetyDirectorate General of Civil DefenceSafety approval for the educational occupancyFitout change, occupancy increase, expiry [NEEDS SOURCE: validity period]
School licence and stage rangeMinistry of EducationLicence naming premises, stages, gender segmentsAdded stage or building, relocation, expiry
Curriculum approvalMinistry of Education; National Curriculum CenterApproved scheme of work; identity subject plan with named teacherCurriculum or awarding body change, new stage
AccreditationETEC or a recognised international body (Art. 30)Accreditation certificate; participation in national assessmentsCycle expiry [NEEDS SOURCE: cycle length]
Teacher licensingETEC professional licensingValid licence per teacher, matched to subject and stageExpiry; new hire; subject reassignment
Nationalisation of specified rolesMinistry of Human Resources and Social DevelopmentSaudisation ratio evidence per qualifying roleRatio decision change; headcount change
Student and results dataMinistry of Education, via NoorEnrolment against national ID or iqama, attendance, assessment, transfersContinuous; enrolment and results windows
Tuition feesMinistry of Education committees, via the Private Education PortalRegistered fee schedule lodged a year ahead; parent notificationAny fee change

Inspection, evaluation and classification

School evaluation sits with ETEC through its National Center for School Evaluation and Excellence. The School Evaluation and Classification Programme launched in 2023-24 and covers public, private and international schools, supported by the National Assessment for Schools (NAFS) in grades 3, 6 and 9, with results delivered through Tameyuz. Article 30 turns evaluation into a licence condition: accreditation becomes a requirement and participation in the commission's assessments an obligation. [NEEDS SOURCE: ETEC's own publication of the school evaluation standards, the classification scale, and the evaluation cycle length, from etec.gov.sa]

Where teams get this wrong

Treating the licence as a document rather than a scope. The licence names a premises, a stage range and a curriculum. Opening a Year 12 cohort in a building licensed to Year 11, or running a second curriculum stream in the same building, is unlicensed activity even though the school itself is licensed.

Missing the fee window by a year. Fees must be lodged a year before the academic year they apply to, so a board approving an increase in March for the coming September has already missed it. There is no in-year correction, and the Ministry's published list, not the school's letter to parents, governs the dispute.

Leaving Noor to the registrar. Where the school's own system is the working record and Noor is updated in batches, the two drift, and the drift surfaces only when a leaving certificate is refused or an equivalency file will not close.

Losing the evidence chain on the premises. The consulting office assembles the survey and drawings and then leaves. Two years later the school partitions a hall, adds a lab, and nobody re-runs the safety approval. That is discovered at inspection.

Not reading Article 33 before a transaction. Group acquisitions fail on the ownership transfer approval more often than on price. Prior Ministry approval means prior.

What to automate, and what not to

Automate what has a defined field, a defined owner and a date: teacher licence expiry against subject allocation, safety and municipal approval expiry, accreditation cycle dates, fee lodgement windows counted backwards from the academic year, and reconciliation between the school's student record and what Noor holds. Those failures are pure calendar and pure data, and they are the ones inspectors find first.

Do not automate the judgement. Whether a curriculum change needs a licence amendment, whether a premises alteration is material, whether a stage addition is in scope, are decisions made in conversation with the education department and then recorded. A system that answers those confidently is worse than no system, because it stops someone picking up the phone.

Where a system helps

The workload is not the licence application. It is the four years afterwards: keeping the student record reconciled with Noor, holding teacher licence and iqama expiry against timetable allocation so an unlicensed teacher never stands in front of a class, and producing the evidence pack when the education department asks on two days' notice. A system earns its place when it holds those as dated records with owners rather than as a shared folder.

KreupAI's SchoolOS is built around that record-keeping problem for GCC schools, including multi-campus groups where one policy has to hold across licences issued at different times. It does not file with the Ministry on your behalf and carries no regulatory approval.

Related reading: KB-117 and KB-119.

FAQ

Can Saudi nationals attend an international school in Saudi Arabia? The Foreign Schools Regulation barred Saudi nationals from foreign schools except returnees, by annual ministerial approval. Schools licensed on the private track teaching an international curriculum have been treated differently. Confirm your licence category with the education department before building an admissions plan on it. [NEEDS SOURCE: current Ministry position on Saudi enrolment in international-curriculum private schools]

How long is a school licence valid? Issue and renewal run through the same portal, with a quoted five to ten working day closure. [NEEDS SOURCE: licence validity period in years and the renewal lead time the Ministry expects]

Does an international school still have to teach Islamic and Arabic content? Yes. The obligation dates to at least the 2013 executive committee decision requiring a minimum of one weekly hour of Arabic language, Islamic civilisation and the Kingdom's history and geography, taught in Arabic to Saudi students. Article 31 of the new law replaces the hour-based framing with national identity subjects specified by the National Curriculum Center.

What are the penalties for operating outside licence conditions? Under Article 60: warning, suspension of student enrolment, a fine of SAR 5,000 to SAR 50,000, or licence revocation, with a revoked school funding students' completion of the academic year. The repealed Foreign Schools Regulation, Article 16, provided for warnings, fines up to SAR 50,000, or revocation.

Sources