DOHA: The Qatar Chamber (QC) has proposed to set up a joint stock company involving private school owners and potential Qatari investors to run educational projects and attract foreign schools to the country.
The proposal was raised by a project team at the seventh meeting of QC’s education committee on Tuesday which also discussed issues related to private schools.
Many foreign schools are being established in Qatar taking advantage of the favourable government policy but some are taking their profits abroad, the committee noted, underlining the need for a Qatari-owned venture to run such institutions.
Not only that such schools are not contributing to the Qatari economy, they are also having a negative impact on the Qatari identity, language and religion, said the committee.
The meeting stressed the importance of encouraging Qatari investment in the private education sector. The committee assigned the team to study the matter and submit recommendations in the next meeting.
Mohammed bin Ahmed Tawar Al Kuwari, QC’s Vice-Chairman and Head of the committee, said private school owners have the potential and capability to develop their institutions according to international standards.
Some members expressed disappointment over reports in a section of newspapers that 168 private schools failed to obtain academic accreditation by the Supreme Education Council.
Failure of these schools was due to issues related to formalities, not because of academic reasons, they claimed. Academic accreditation should be based on students’ achievement in international tests and their academic efficiency. Some expatriate parents wrote a negative report that prevented these schools from getting accreditation, they observed.
Participants said a major problem for accreditation is the long waiting (18 months) for results. The committee decided to take up the issue with the Minister of Education and Higher Education for a review of the accreditation period to limit to one academic year and focus on academic efficiency and student results.
A member said the committee presented its studies about school fees to the Minister and discussed the issue with an official and was awaiting the final decision.
The panel felt that a section of the media has been targeting private schools and generalising isolated cases. This is distorting the image of private schools in general.
The committee decided to meet editors-in-chief of local newspapers and heads of their business sections to sort out the issue.
The Peninsula
