Since its launch in 2011, the National Program for Gifted discovered a total of 186,915 gifted male and female students in general education schools across the Kingdom. This was made through a strategic partnership between King Abdul Aziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba), the Ministry of Education and the Education and Training Evaluation Authority represented by the National Center for Assessment, out of 518,000 students who have undergone Mawhiba scale tests for multiple mental abilities. The program emerged at the national and international level through a model for gifted identification based on an advanced scientific methodology that relies on the most critical scientific foundations and best educational practices to ensure the proper selection of gifted students, through which it builds a vast and comprehensive database for all gifted men and women in all regions and cities and for all stages of public education. The program aims to explore gifted male and female students in the Kingdom in science and technology, develop an integrated system and a comprehensive methodology for identifying them, and achieve fairness in choosing and directing the gifted student to a program that fits his or her skills, as well as contributing to enriching the sources of scientific research and the Arab library concerning the field of identification. The program's mission also includes sponsorship by providing a variety of local and international services by Mawhiba in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and organizations supporting the gifted, as well as extending beyond the general education stage to include university qualification programs and university scholarships in the most prestigious international universities. Director of Mawhiba's Recognition and Registration Department Fahad Al-Tamimi said that the Mawhiba criteria for multiple mental abilities are the first portal to discover gifted people and an entry point for most Mawhiba's services and programs. Students who have been discovered and obtained qualifications have the opportunity to participate in all the programs and services available provided by Mawhiba, he said, adding that by the end of 2022, more than 27,000 male and female students were sponsored within the "Mawhiba Classes" program, and more than 47,000 male and female students participated in the Mawhiba Academic Enrichment Program within 34 diverse enrichment units in different scientific fields, while Mawhiba students were able to obtain more than 1,300 admissions to the best international universities through the Mawhiba Excellence Program. — SPA
