Education
Within the compound itself, Saudi Aramco operates two schools, the Dhahran Hills School (Elementary, K-5) and the Dhahran School (6-9). The company has never provided a high school level, which used to compel employees to send dependent students out of country after the 9th grade for secondary school and college. (A graduation ceremony is attached to this rite of passage, and Aramco brats identify themselves thereafter as the "Class of 1990", for example.) Since 2002 however, the International Schools Group (ISG) Dhahran campus, located within a mile of the Saudi Aramco compound in Dhahran, has offered US-based curriculum education through to 12th grade, enabling Dhahran residents to send their children there after leaving the Saudi Aramco school system, if they wish.
Dhahran schools employ an American-based curriculum. The children of Saudi Aramco expatriate employees of whatever nationality are allowed to attend, however the children of Saudi employees may not attend unless they have special permission from the Ministry of Education (very rarely given and only temporarily). Until 1980, Saudi employees living on camp were allowed to register their children in the company school, but thereafter the Saudi Ministry of Education regulations were enforced.
Beyond the compound, the greater Dhahran area is home to the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, a national technical institution built just outside the compound's original perimeter fence, and the Aramco Training Center (ATC), which includes the campus of the selective College Preparatory Center for promising Saudi secondary students preparing for study abroad.
Read more about this topic: Saudi Aramco Residential Camp In Dhahran
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