Manama: Students in Saudi Arabia will not be attending classes during the fasting month of Ramadan in 2018 and 2019.
The decision was taken by the cabinet during its weekly session as it reviewed a proposal from the Council of Economic and Development Affairs for the next five academic years.
Under the proposal, students this year will go to school from September 17 until May 15, just one day before the start of Ramadan.
They will have one break on September 24 as the kingdom celebrates its national day and a mid-year break from January 12 until January 20.
The one-week breaks in the middle of the semesters have been cancelled and the students will study for 15 weeks in the first semester and 15 weeks in the second semester, with a total of 167 days.
In 2018, students will start the academic year on September 2 and will end it on May 2.
Their mid-year break will be from December 28 until January 5 and will have 169 schooling days over two semesters of 15 weeks each.
In 2019, the academic year will stretch from September 1 until June 11 and will have two semesters of 16 schooling weeks each.
Students will be off from May 5 until May 20 on account of Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr. All end of year exams will be held following the Eid, thus avoiding having students sit for tests while fasting.
King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud in April stepped in to end a controversy over when end of the year exams should be held following a standoff between the ministers with students and their parents.
The minister initially ruled out holding the exams before May 25, the start of the holy month during which all physically-able adult Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink from sunrise until sunset.
Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar-based Muslim calendar that comprises 354 days, moves up by 11 days every year.
However, King Salman later ordered that the end-of-second-semester exams be held before Ramadan.
The decision meant an early end of the academic year and universities and schools closed for a record 120 days, the longest vacation in the history of education in Saudi Arabia.
According to official figures released by the Ministry of Education, 4,895,466 students are enrolled in all Saudi schools for the 2016-2017 academic year.
The figure includes 4,174,535 students in government schools, 654,011 in private schools and 66,920 in expatriate community schools.
Non-Saudi students are 1,109,594, including 733,251 in public schools, 111,072 in private schools and 265,271 in expat schools.
