JEDDAH, 30 November 2005 — Dar Al-Hanan, Saudi Arabia’s first and oldest private school for girls, will reopen in 2007 in a new location.
Last year on the school’s 50th anniversary, the school’s board announced a temporary closure.
The school was founded at the urging and instigation of the late Queen Effat, wife of King Faisal who was an early supporter of women’s education in Saudi Arabia. She is also honored and remembered in the name of the well-known Effat College in Jeddah. Both the school and the college occupied the same campus for several years until the school decided that it should move to a new location.
A new era for the school will begin with the 2007 school year. Princess Lolowah Al-Faisal, the daughter of Queen Effat and King Faisal, is chairwoman of the school’s board of directors.
Princess Lolowah has signed contracts with Red Sea Engineering Studies, Zuhair Zahran company and Musharco, to design and build the new school. It will be in north Jeddah in Al-Zahra district on Prince Sultan Street behind City Plaza mall.
The complex will include a kindergarten, elementary, intermediate and high school buildings as well as an administration building, multi-purpose halls, laboratories and a library.
The facilities will feature the latest equipment and the highest standards of educational tools and methods.
“This new step is an achievement in the field of expanding and developing education in the Kingdom and it is a continuation of what was achieved in the past 50 years,” said Princess Lolowah.
