Primary and Secondary Schools
Qatar has seen a revolution in its primary and secondary level school system since the inception of MoEHE The primary and secondary schools were governed by the Ministry of Education, which is wholly responsible for all aspects of the schools functioning, from providing the finances to the hiring of the staff. All the public schools are under the Ministry’s supervision as well as all the private and embassy schools, which had to comply with the guidelines and policies set by the Ministry.
Today, there is a much more elaborate and comprehensive system of education for the schools in Qatar, with very clear strategies and defined goals. There have been numerous projects undertaken by the MoEHE, designed to achieve the milestones underlined by the “Education and Training Sector Strategy 2011 – 2016” which has been derived from the Qatar National Vision 2030. The development has been rapid and radical in the primary and secondary school systems in Qatar, both administratively and curriculum wise.
The public schools, which were governed exclusively by the State of Qatar, have been granted the status of independent schools with their own Board of Governors (BoG) and Board of Trustees (BoT). The immediate repercussion of this strategy is that each individual school has been made accountable to the general public and authorities alike. The accountability is based on the defined performance goals for all schools. The BOGs and BOTs ensure the engagement of all stakeholders in the education sector.
To improve the standards of instruction in the schools across the country, Qatar Office for Registration, Licensing and Accreditation (QORLA), Department of Evaluations, SEC has introduced a teachers’ licensing system. The objective is to get all the teachers and school leaders of independent public schools to prove their competency through a series of tests and evaluations.
Private schools of various foreign curricula are also bound by charter to adhere to the policies for private schools, which include, apart from the teaching standards requirements, the health and safety standards, administrative standards, the governance system of the schools, student-teacher ratios, availability of extracurricular activities and facilities etc.
There is a wide range of private schools available to choose from in Qatar. Curricula available in different schools around Qatar include IGCSE, GCSE, GCE, AERO USA, National UK, CBSE India, ABI Dutch, SABIS, Norwegian, Alberta Education Programs, FBISE, IB & AP, NCTB of Bangladesh and numerous others along with Qatar’s National curriculum offered at the local schools.