The Saudi Ministry of Education has recently begun to allow all Saudi families to enroll their children in international schools. The international curriculum offered by such schools represents a notably different choice compared with Saudi traditional public and private schools, both of which teach the same state-mandated curriculum. As a result of the change, there has been a surge in demand for international education; the number of schools has increased rapidly, and there has been a steady “student leak” towards them and away from traditional schools. Little is known about why Saudi parents choose to enroll their children in international schools. We explored this question by surveying 431 Saudi parents of children attending such schools to identify the main factors contributing to their choice. Although all factors examined were important to parents, curriculum and overall school quality emerged as the most important; socioeconomic status was not influential in their decisions.

中文翻译：

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影响沙特家长选择沙特国际学校的因素

沙特教育部最近开始允许所有沙特家庭让他们的孩子进入国际学校。与沙特传统的公立和私立学校相比，这些学校提供的国际课程代表了一个明显不同的选择，两者都教授相同的国家规定的课程。由于这种变化，对国际教育的需求激增；学校的数量迅速增加，并且有稳定的“学生流失”趋向于他们并远离传统学校。很少有人知道沙特父母为什么选择让他们的孩子进入国际学校。我们通过对 431 名就读此类学校的孩子的沙特家长进行调查来探讨这个问题，以确定影响他们选择的主要因素。尽管所考察的所有因素对家长都很重要，但课程和整体学校质量成为最重要的因素；社会经济地位对他们的决定没有影响。