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GEMS education expands to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain with new partnership
The group aims to expand to more than 20 schools with 20,000 students across Saudi Arabia and the GCC within the next five years
- PUBLISHED: Thu 29 May 2025, 1:15 PM
UAE-based GEMS Education, is broadening its presence in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
This follows First School Management (FSM) — the schools’ advisory arm of GEMS Education — signing its inaugural intellectual property agreement with Spark Education Platform (SEP).
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GEMS will now introduce its brand to SEP’s select schools across Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
SEP, recognised as one of the region’s fastest-growing K-12 school operators, currently oversees four schools with a combined capacity of over 10,000 students.
The group aims to expand to more than 20 schools with 20,000 students across Saudi Arabia and the GCC within the next five years.
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SEP is backed by the Saudi Education Fund (SEF), which is managed by EFG Hermes — a subsidiary of EFG Holding and the region’s leading investment bank.
Sunny Varkey, Chairman and Founder of GEMS Education and the Varkey Foundation, said, “Our vision has always been to make world-class education accessible to as many students as possible. The launch of First School Management is a natural extension of this commitment, and this partnership with Spark Education Platform is the first of many. We are seeing strong global demand for our expertise and are excited about the opportunities ahead as we continue to support schools in delivering outstanding education in diverse international contexts.”
Under this long-term agreement, FSM will deliver a defined range of services through a licensing model to support SEP’s operation of GEMS-branded schools.
Karim Moussa, Co-CEO of EFG Hermes, an EFG Holding company, said, “After our great success story in Egypt, I am honored to expand our partnership with First School Management into Saudi Arabia and Bahrain as key GCC markets with significant demand for new high-quality K-12 education capacities.”
