“The Ministry of Education will launch a new educational project called Shamil on the first day of reopening in the primary and intermediary levels. The project will focus on the improvement of syllabuses for Islamic education, Arabic language and social studies in addition to professional trades taught in schools,” said Director General of Education in Madinah Saud Al-Zahrani in a statement to Arab News on Thursday.

Al-Zahrani said 11 new school buildings at a total cost of SR116 million are ready to replace rented buildings while 63 other school projects are under way. This is in addition to 54 school buildings that have completed maintenance or construction of new classrooms at a cost of SR39 million.

In another development, 20 private schools in Riyadh were shuttered for not fulfilling technical requirements concerning construction design and safety arrangements of school buildings. This was announced by the Chairman of the Private Education Committee in the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ibrahim Al-Salim.

He said the closure of schools violating building regulations was ordered by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.

A committee has been set up jointly by the ministry and RCCI to look into the existing municipal regulations for construction of private schools, he said.

The regulations stipulate that the site of a school should be 50 meters away from a main intersection and 20 meters from a petrol station and 50 meters from a gas depot. They also require that the planning and educational departments of a municipality should approve a private school project.

The municipality also stipulates that a kindergarten should have 900 sq meters of space while a primary school should have 2,500 sq meters, middle schools 3,500 sq meters and secondary schools 5,000.

A complex comprising all stages of schools should have a minimum of 7,500 sq meters, according to ministry regulations.