Market Trends of GCC Private K12 Education Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the GCC Private K12 Education Market according to our research experts:
Government Initiatives Toward a Developed Education Sector
Over the last few years, governments in the GCC region have undertaken a number of initiatives, most notably the introduction of favorable policies, which encourage private sector participation in the education sector. The governments in the GCC Countries have tried to increase the market share of private sectors in the industry by implementing initiatives like 100% foreign ownership. Furthermore, favorable demographics like majority of population in the school going age, rising expatriate population as a result of government policies providing 10-year residency visas and higher GDP per capita are also driving the demand for education in the GCC. The governments in the GCC region are also continuing to allocate sizable portions of their budget to the education sector.
As a result, the K-12 private education market has gained prominence over the past few years and has become an attractive opportunity for investors and school operators. This had led to a direct impact on the investments from the private sector to capitalize on government's initiatives across the region.
Growth of Consumer Spending on Education is Driving the Market
In the GCC countries, consumer spending on education rose positively per person in 2020. The top GCC nations in terms of consumer spending on education per capita were the UAE and Saudi Arabia, followed by Qatar and Kuwait. The market is being driven by this increase in consumer spending on education per person.
The total number of teachers of all academic levels in the Gulf Cooperation Council is 960.7 thousand, with an increase of 5.9 thousand from 2015-2016, with an average annual growth of 0.2%.
The Saudi Vision 2030 aims to support the growth of the education sector, which is one of its main pillars. The population of Saudi Arabia is expected to grow during the next 11 years from 34.17 million currently to 44.9 million, indicating that the number of students enrolled in schools is 6 million students and that population growth will create the need to add 1.1 or 2.1 million new seats to meet the needs of students by the year 2030.
