RIYADH — More than four million male and female students across all three educational levels in Saudi Arabia will return to their classrooms on Sunday, Aug. 23 to mark the beginning of the new academic year. However, the education departments in Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, and Taif are excluded from this return schedule. The actual start of classes in these four departments will take place with the return of students to schools on Aug. 30. The new academic year will also see the enrollment of children born during the COVID-19 pandemic period in first grade at elementary schools and early childhood education centers. The Ministry of Education stressed the importance of a serious and disciplined start from the first day of the students’ return, particularly as schools completed the distribution of textbooks for students’ new grades immediately after the end of the final exams of the previous academic year.
