Mohammed Osman
The private schools in Qatar are set to be classified into grades according to education quality, fee structure providing a huge relief to the parents to select school of their choice for their children, said a senior official of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
The move will also help concerned authority to determine the fee structures of the schools. "A team is currently working on the categorisation of the private schools into three or possibly four categories (A, B, C, and D). The results will be unveiled very soon," said Hamad Al Ghali, Director of the Department of Private Schools Licensing at the Ministry of Education. "The move is meant to help parents choose the quality of education they want and schools fees they can afford," he added.
He said that the Ministry had received as many as 70 applications for opening and operating new private schools and kindergartens. "The date for submitting applications has been extended by the ministry until June 30 instead of limiting the duration in November and December of every year."
As part of ministry’s new organisational structure, private school administration has been separated from public education.Accordingly, the administration consist of three departments including department for Private Schools Affairs, Licensing and Educational Centers, Al Gahli told "Qatar Radio" speaking at the radio programme “Massa Al Khair Doha” (Good Evening Doha).
Hamad Al Ghali, said that the Ministry has received, this year, a total of 127 applications from schools seeking increase in fees and has approved only 38 applications for schools and KGs which have fulfilled the criteria, Al Ghali stressed noting that the applications are subject to administrative, financial and technical assessments by specialized team of the competent department.
School fees are updated every three years but there are some exceptional cases such as the owner of certain school has spent considerable amount on a new building to shift the school then the case is studied separately and consequently school fee may increase but in phases, said Al Ghali. For instance, the first year fee will increase by 25% and following year by 15 percent to protect the interests of both sides, the investor and the parents and children in the school.
The teaching of Arabic language, Islamic studies and history of Qatar are compulsory in all private schools and international schools, but community schools are only required to teach the history of Qatar, he added. The ministry supervises the teaching of these subjects.
Currently there are a total of 262 private schools and kindergartens with student population of 183,441 out of this there are 32,439 Qatari students, representing 18 percent of the total, Al Ghali highlighted.
Regarding schools vouchers, Al Ghali pointed out that six schools out of the 12 deprived from school vouchers this academic year will benefit again from vouchers system.
In regard to private schools timing, Al Ghali said that maximum school timing was five hours with exceptional cases of one or two schools like the International School of Choueifat which works six hours because of conducting online tests with other branches at same time. The online test is accessible at certain time and then blocked, Al Ghali stressed.
© The Peninsula 2017
