Following a three-hour meeting here, they also urged authorities to link them with the education system approved by the Ministry of Education.
The meeting was attended by representatives of schools run by various expatriate communities in addition to Education Ministry officials and parents of some students.
The meeting discussed the positive and negative aspects of international schools in the Kingdom, ever since the government started issuing licenses for them in 1998.
The government had set out certain conditions for issuing licenses for international schools, such as teaching Arabic, Islamic studies and Saudi history and gender-based segregation.
The meeting also discussed the mechanism for the attestation of certificates issued by international schools by the Education Ministry.
A woman director of a school who attended the meeting, who requested anonymity, said international and private schools in the Kingdom sometimes receive unreasonable demands or confusing instructions.
For example, she said the ministry sent a circular telling students of some expatriate communities they do not need to have their certificates endorsed to sit exams organized by their consulates.
“The circular has nothing to do with international schools as their exams are linked with education systems back home,” she said.
