38 years post establishment, Saudi to close renowned Arabic, Islam-focused London school

Riyadh: A well-known independent school in London faces the risk of closing in September, after Saudi Arabia withdrew its support for it, according to a British Middle East Eye report.

The school has been popular with the diaspora from the Middle East and North Africa for 38 years.

The King Fahad Academy in London has been serving the educational needs of residents of the capital with Arab and Islamic backgrounds since 1985, by mixing Arabic and Islamic studies with British courses.

Teachers at the Saudi-backed school received the news of the closure in person on Tuesday, May 2, after returning from a three-week double break for Easter and Al-Fitr. Many expressed their apparent anger at losing their jobs without warning, according to what Middle East Eye has learned.

One teacher, who preferred not to be named, told Middle East Eye, “As a former student, parent and current teacher, I am still in shock. My main concern is the well-being of our children and I have not received official notice of the closure as a parent yet.”

While the parents learned of the closure plan from the rumours that spread a few days ago, they did not receive confirmation from the school until the afternoon of Friday, May 5.

Saudi Arabia is restructuring its education system

A text of the letter, which was sent to the parents, reads as follows, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is reorganizing and restructuring its educational system. As a result, it will amend its approach to providing educational services outside the Kingdom and is considering closing some educational institutions now. The academy is one of the institutions that is being considered for closure.”

The letter added that the school is likely to close by the end of the current academic year unless an alternative funding source is found.

Alarming situation 

On May 4, parents wrote to the school to say that “their children’s education and stability has been left on hold”.

Parents have complained that they do not have enough time to find new schools before the start of the new school year in September, and registration for the 2023-2024 academic year in government schools is now closed, making it more difficult to find another school of choice.

While about 480 students are currently studying at King Fahad Academy, starting from the kindergarten stage until the age of 18 years. There is a waiting list for potential students at the academy, as it is one of the few schools known for teaching Arabic and Islamic studies in London.

It is noteworthy that the school was established in 1985 by the former King of Saudi Arabia, Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in order to provide education for the children of Saudi diplomats and others wishing to obtain a religious education in London.

“King Fahad Academy was more than just a school. It was our home away from home, and helped us learn and understand our religious and cultural identity,” former school student Jamal Elshayyal, director of the content strategy at the Qatari network Al-Jazeera, told the British website.

Former students at the school included Nuha Yassin, who became the first woman to perform robotic colorectal surgery monitoring in the UK. Likewise, Ahmed Aziz is one of the eminent oculoplastic surgeons at Imperial College London.