With ever-growing population of the country, the need for more educational facilities particularly community schools has also increased manifold. Despite a good number of private community schools and kindergartens, many parents used to face difficulties in getting their children admitted to schools every academic year for the last few years.
Parents have been calling upon the authorities to address the issue of shortage of school seats to accommodate increasing number of expatriates’ children. Now the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has announced that as many as 13 new private schools including two Indian community schools are set to be opened in the academic year 2018/2019 with a total capacity of 6,021 seats.
These 13 schools and kindergartens have already got licences and set to be opened in the academic year 2018/2019. Among these 13 schools, two schools are for the Indian community. The opening of new private schools which will definitely prove a great source of relief for struggling parents also reflects investors trust in Qatar and its future.
Hamad Al Ghali, Director of the Department of Private Schools Licensing at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has recently said that any community school could register students from other communities in case the school has seats. “More people are poised to apply for educational licences in November this year and we hope that it will meet the current requirement,” he stated.
About the current capacity in private schools, Al Ghali said that there were more than 33,000 seats for various different educational stages (primary, secondary) for next academic year.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has stated that the number of Qatari students who move from private Arab and foreign schools to government schools, including students from outside the State of Qatar, is increasing, noting that the number reached 5,500 during the academic year 2017-2018.
This transfer of Qatari students from private Arab and foreign schools to government schools will also create vacant seats for children of expatriate communities particularly those belonging to Arab countries.
This (transfer), the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has stated confirms the attractiveness of the school environment and the academic climate in the government schools, as well as the interest in studying the Qatari curriculum, especially after setting the general framework of Qatar’s national educational curriculum, revising the curricula and taking advantage of freedom of movement between government and private schools and the educational and upbringing process.
