Muscat: A total of 876,117 students began the 2026/2027 academic year on Sunday across 1,298 schools in the Sultanate of Oman.
Of the total, 440,899 are male students and 435,218 are female students. A further 3,903 students are enrolled in special education programmes in public and private schools.
The schools include 341 schools for Grades 1-4, 128 for Grades 5-8 and 165 for Grades 9-12, in addition to 664 continuing schools and 115 evening schools.
The total number of teaching, administrative and technical staff in public schools for the new academic year stands at 68,205. This includes 21,011 male teachers and 47,194 female teachers, while administrative and technical staff number 12,200, comprising 4,832 men and 7,368 women.
Dr Madeeha bint Ahmed Al Shaibani, Minister of Education, congratulated students, teachers and other education sector employees on the start of the new academic year.
She said the institutional transformation of the education sector, following the merger of the former Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation under the Ministry of Education, reflects a national vision for an integrated education system.
The unified system aims to align policies and link the educational pathway from pre-school through higher education, while strengthening alignment between educational outcomes and labour market requirements and improving the efficiency of the education system.
Quality of education
Dr Al Shaibani said improving the quality of school and higher education remains a priority for the ministry, with quality education forming one of the key pillars of its efforts.
As part of efforts to strengthen governance in the education sector, the ministry places emphasis on the results of external evaluations of public and private schools, as well as institutional and programme accreditation processes for non-governmental higher education institutions conducted by the Oman Authority for Quality Assurance of Education.
The ministry seeks to utilise the outcomes of these evaluations and accreditation processes to support institutions in improving their performance and enhancing the quality of graduates.
