In a city more familiar with rockets than school bells, a different morning begins at the Model Complex for Gifted Students in Marib. Built and fully funded by the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen, the complex is now home to dozens of students studying science and mathematics, a scene that captures the triumph of knowledge over years of war. Four years ago, at the height of Houthi attacks on Marib in 2022, Asharq Al-Awsat visited the site for the first time. The building was then in its final stages of preparation, while nearby neighborhoods, including al-Rawda and al-Matar, were under repeated Houthi ballistic missile fire. One missile struck a house only about 500 meters from the gifted students’ center, offering a stark image of two opposing projects: one that builds people, and another that destroys them. Even as the war reached one of its fiercest stages, the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen pushed ahead. What seemed at the time like an educational gamble in the middle of a battlefield has become one of Yemen’s clearest examples of investment in people. The center was no ordinary education project. It was a dream long held by Sheikh Sultan al-Arada, vice president of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council and governor of Marib. He recalled proposing the idea to the Saudi Ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al-Jaber, who quickly approved the establishment and full equipping of the project. When Asharq Al-Awsat returned to the center, the scene had changed completely. The building that stood silent in 2022 under the shadow of war was alive with students. Laboratories were busy, and classrooms echoed with discussion and scientific experiments. Since its official opening in 2024, more than 200 high-achieving students have enrolled at the center. Many come from different Yemeni provinces after the war forced their families to flee to Marib. Here, in a city often described as the last line of defense for the republic, Saudi Arabia is fighting a different kind of battle: a battle to build minds, based on the belief that rebuilding people comes before rebuilding nations. Dr. Mohammed al-Qairi, director of the gifted students’ complex in Marib, said the center’s opening in 2024 marked a turning point for quality education in the province. Demand, he said, exceeded expectations from the first day. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that 246 students applied for the first intake, with only 120 selected after a series of scientific tests. Dr. Mohammed al-Qairi, director of the gifted students’ complex in Marib (Asharq Al-Awsat) In the current academic year, 213 students applied and only 90 were admitted, after the administration decided to reduce admissions to focus more closely on the quality of educational outcomes. Qairi said the complex no longer serves Marib alone. It now represents all of Yemen, bringing together students who fled with their families from most Yemeni provinces and turning Marib into a wartime hub for the country’s scientific elite. Applicants sit rigorous tests in Arabic, English, mathematics and science, as well as a special intelligence assessment. To remain at the complex, students must maintain an average of at least 80 percent. The complex's students achieved first and second place in Physics and Chemistry during the scientific forum in Marib (Asharq Al-Awsat) Qairi said Marib had long been seen as distant from quality education projects, and few had imagined it would host a model school for top-performing students of this standard. “We had a limited experience in the capital Sanaa, but establishing a complex for gifted students in Marib was not something anyone expected,” he said. “What has been achieved here came thanks to the support of our brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whose role was not limited to implementing service projects, but extended to investing in people. The gifted students’ complex was one of the most important of these projects,” he added. Applicants sit rigorous tests in Arabic, English, mathematics and science, as well as a special intelligence assessment (Asharq Al-Awsat) The complex currently teaches students in the first and second years of secondary school. Preparations are underway to open the third secondary year next year, a step those in charge describe as the first real test of the experiment. Their ambition is clear: to see their students rank among the top performers in the Republic of Yemen. Although the project is still new, results have come quickly. Students from the complex won first place in physics at the Marib province level and second place in chemistry at the scientific forum, achievements that project officials see as an early sign of success. “We are still at the beginning of the road, but we aspire for this complex to become a factory for the top students of the republic, and a model to be followed in the rest of the provinces,” Qairi said. The complex marked a turning point in the journey of quality education in Marib Governorate (Asharq Al-Awsat) The ambitions are not limited to male students. Qairi said plans would soon be announced to establish a similar complex for high-achieving female students, widening access to quality education. He said the building is equipped with classrooms, laboratories, furniture and administrative equipment, but still needs supporting facilities, including shaded areas to protect students from the heat and the completion of a guard room. Such needs, he said, do not diminish the value of the project, but would strengthen its educational environment. “In a country exhausted by war, discovering a gifted student or preparing a researcher, doctor, or engineer, becomes another form of reconstruction,” he said.
