Andalus Private Schools (APS) has become the first educational institution in Saudi Arabia to sign up for the establishment of two primary schools – one each for boys and girls – with an investment of SR150 million, at the Knowledge Economic City (KEC) in Madina. The initial agreement for the purpose was signed by Sheikh Abdulghani Abdullah El-Khereiji, owner of APS and Tahir Mohammed Bawazir, Chief Executive Officer of KEC, here on Saturday. “The Al-Andalus network has almost 4,500 students in schools in Jeddah, Taif and Rabegh, and the KEC project in Madina is an extension of that. Work on the first phase will start immediately after the final agreement, which is expected in a few months,” El-Khereiji told Saudi Gazette before the initial accord was signed. He explained that the design phase will start soon, and in another six to eight months, construction will begin, which is expected to be completed in 24 to 30 months. Al-Andalus schools, providing education to students from kindergarten up to 12th grade (K-12), will be built on two plots of land measuring 50,000 sq. meters. As for the capacity, he said that it will grow with the KEC. In the beginning, there will be only the first three grades, which will be increased gradually. Each school will have 48 classes, and each class will have 20 students. So with a total of 96 classes, the joint strength will come to nearly 1,920 students. Bawazir said that discussions with other educational institutions are “in the pipeline” in the areas of IT and the health sector. “By the end of the year, we expect to sign a couple of more agreements,” he said, and explained, “Our target is not the number of institutions but basically to have four sectors covered – health, IT, hospitality services, including management, and management and business schools.” There could be any number of institutions that could cover the projected base of around 24,000 students over the next 10 years. “In the next three to four years, we expect to achieve a strength of at least between 5,000 to 6, 000,” he said. As for the services and facilities provided, besides the land, he said that as a whole the concept of the KEC is to provide the integrated services required to develop a smart education base. The City recently completed the design for the smart IT network infrastructure together with Cisco and also developed a study on the proposed smart services that will be provided. “Institutions such as Al-Andalus, and others, will have access to many aspects of technology without having to make an investment in that direction themselves, thus reducing both their capital and operating cost. There are a lot of smart services available that could be shared by many institutes for education, business, health and many others,” Bawazir added. “The development of Al-Andalus Smart School is a significant first step toward the educational reform envisaged by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” he said. “The KEC in Madina is the new home of knowledge-based industries and APS will benefit tremendously from this location to lay the foundation for the development of our youth for a knowledge-based economy,” he added. El-Khereiji said that Al-Andalus Smart Schools will stand to benefit from KEC's modern infrastructure that will facilitate the speedy delivery of information and the optimum application of technology. “I am very happy to have the opportunity to open the schools at the City, and I believe Al-Andalus Schools will be capable of delivering the highest standard of quality education in line with the development plans of the Kingdom,” he added. “The schools will provide e-learning with the use of the latest technology to enhance the teaching process. In other words, the schools will help students learn through information technology and quick reference facilities which will enable lessons to be presented in a systematic manner,” El-Khereiji said. “We believe in methods and systems in the teaching process to avoid any confusion in the minds of students. This process creates a healthy educational environment. This is our goal and vision and we work hard for their accomplishment,” he added. He said he was confident that in the future, students graduating from APS will contribute to the development of the KEC and also to the transformation to a knowledge
