This Day in History (1960): Aramco-Built Intermediate School Started in Dammam

From the June 22, 1960, edition of the Sun and Flare

Shaikh 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Turki, Director of Education for the Eastern Province, in a ceremony last Thursday laid the cornerstone of the first intermediate school to be built by Aramco in the province.

The new school being built at Dammam is an extension of The Aramco program of construction of schools for sons of Muslim and Arab employees. It will accommodate grades seven, eight, and nine.

Participating in the cornerstone laying at the site of the first intermediate school, not far from the first elementary school built by Aramco, were the Director of the Dammam Municipality, the Registrar of Dammam, the Chief of Police of Dammam, the deputy Director of Public Security, and the Assistant Director and Engineer of the directorate of Education in the Eastern Province.

Also present as Aramco representatives were Dr. Robert King Hall, Director Training; D.D. McConnell, Assistant General Manager, Engineering and construction; J.D. Symons, Assistant General Manager, Relations and Local Sales; Harry Snyder, Training department; Saleh Sowayigh, Deputy Company Representative, Dammam; Frank Patterson, Home Ownership Division; and several other departmental representatives.

The company has built and equipped 11 elementary schools in the Eastern Province under a program agreed with the Government in 1953. Last year, the company voluntarily extended that agreement to include intermediate schools, and plans were started for the first two, each to accommodate 150 students. Construction of the second intermediate school in the al-Ruqyyiqah section of Hofuf will begin in the fall.

For the intermediate school curriculum developed by the Ministry of Education, the new building will include a laboratory for teaching of biology, physics, and chemistry; a general shop for instruction in woodworking, metalworking, and electricity; and facilities for agricultural studies. Also to be taught in the intermediate school are sketching, drawing, bookkeeping, and typing.

As it has for the elementary schools, the company is designing, building, and equipping the intermediate schools and paying maintenance and operation costs, including salaries of teachers.

More than 11,000 boys have attended the company-built elementary schools in the past six years. Hundreds of these are to continue their studies in the intermediate schools.

Caption for top photo: Shaikh 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Turki, Director of Education for the Eastern Province, (second from left) with Aramco and Government representatives, lays the cornerstone for the first Aramco-built intermediate school.

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