The Memorial School

Following King Abdulaziz's return to Jeddah from his state-visit to Egypt in 1945, a group of merchants from Riyadh reportedly collected some amounts of money to organize a reception party for the monarch. Upon being informed of this, Abdulaziz instead insisted the merchants to use the money for charitable purposes and asked them to establish a school in Riyadh that would offer formal education.^[4][5][6]

The school was inaugurated on June 12, 1948, as Madrasa al-Ahliyyah in the presence of Abdulaziz. Around 1954, Prince Fahd bin Abdulaziz, the country's then education minister paid a visit to the school and was displeased to the see its earth-structured building composed of wood and mud. He subsequently issued directives to renovate and remodel the building with reinforced concrete and iron.^[7]

In 1964, the school's name was changed to Madrasa al-Tazkariyyah by King Faisal, in memory of Abdulaziz's return to Saudi Arabia from his state-visit to Egypt in 1945.

In the 1970s, an American cultural delegation visited the school. Most of the students and teachers were caught in embarrassment and awkwardness as they couldn't speak English and thus, were finding it difficult to communicate with the delegation. However, some of the non-Saudi Arab expatriate teachers with an English education background helped served as interpreters to a customary extent.^[8]

In February 2019, the Ministry of Education ordered the closure of the school due to lack of students enrolling in the institution.^{[9][10][11][12]}