The company will help finance a nationwide project for the promotion of general education. “The new company will be financed by public investment and specific government funds,” Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted Fahd Al-Tayyash, the ministry’s general supervisor of educational information, as saying.

Al-Tayyash did not specify the start-up capital for the new holding company but said its launch will coincide with the resumption of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s Project to Promote Education.

“The Tatweer (development) holding company will be one of the Kingdom’s mega companies and will soon be set up by the ministry after its organizational structure has been finalized,” he added.

According to Al-Tayyash, other unspecified government bodies will participate in the ownership of the new company.

“The idea to establish the company came after a thorough consideration of the best means to finance King Abdullah’s Project to Promote Education,” he explained.

Al-Tayyash said King Abdullah’s project was temporarily suspended so its first phase could be evaluated and will be re-launched during the next academic year.

He considered the first phase to be successful and said it led to 50 schools for boys and girls in various parts of the Kingdom.

An amount of $2.4 billion was allocated for the project, which was launched in October 2008.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Prince Faisal bin Abdullah has ordered the establishment of a committee that will implement measures to improve the quality of schools in the Kingdom.

The committee will also aim to improve the quality of teachers and other employees in the sector. “The setting up of the committee is a major move for the ministry to develop the educational system and its output in line with the approved standards of education,” Prince Faisal said.

Deputy Ministers of Education Khaled Al-Sabati and Norah bint Abdullah Al-Faiz will act as chair and vice-chair of the committee respectively.

The committee’s tasks include preparing the general policy for implementing comprehensive quality improvement programs.

The committee will also define the initiatives needed to implement the policy as well as their objectives and budgets.

Education experts in the Kingdom described the move as vital for developing education in line with modern curriculums.

Ezzeddine Hafiz, an educational inspector in Jeddah, considered the move an advanced step to modernize general education in the Kingdom. He hoped that it would produce results and raise the general standard of education in the country quickly.