Saudi Arabia's first technical secondary school

The 1930s witnessed many changes in education: the first Religious Sciences School (1933); the issuance of rules for private schools (1934); and the first secondary school, Tahdeer Al-Baathat School, to prepare graduates for a university education (1935). In 1938, the General Directorate of Education was given full control over all education except for the military. Saudi Arabia's first technical secondary school and school of higher learning, the College of Sharia (now, Umm Al Qura University), were founded in 1949. During the decade of the 1950s, three more colleges were granted charters, the Teachers' College (1952), the College of Sharia in Riyadh (1953), and the College of Arabic Language in Riyadh (1954).