Officials attending the meeting.
Qatar is set to have a school dedicated to students with autism from the next academic year. Seven new schools, new streams, changes in subject timings and evaluation of teachers are also expected from the coming
academic year, a senior official of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has said. H E Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Ali Al Hammadi, Minister of Education and Higher Education, yesterday held a meeting with school principals and operators at the ministry headquarters.
“The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has a plan to increase the streams in the Qatari education system by adding new streams to general education,” said Fawziya Al Khater, the Assistant Undersecretary for Educational Affairs, during the meeting held yesterday.
“The Ministry is set to open seven new schools in addition to one school for individuals with autism during the coming academic year,” said Al Khater.
The official also stressed that there is a proposal to establish science and technology academy for grade 9 to 12 students. Meanwhile, a stream for technology is expected to be introduced in addition to the existing art and science streams in high schools. The proposal indicated addition of science subjects at technical schools.
Meanwhile, science will be introduced to the religious institute stream at the high school level, making it science and religious stream. The Ministry is going to review the files of the applicants to select the best teachers for filling the shortage in schools, said Al Khater.
“The Ministry is going to evaluate, for the first time, mathematics, science, Arabic Language and English language teachers of grades one to three to find out their weakness,” she announced.
However, the ministry, in 2017/2018 academic year, will introduce some changes in the preparatory and primary schools timings and lessons. There will be change in the time allocated for subjects , break will be 30 minutes, and 20 minutes for prayer break.
An addition of one hour will be made for social science subjects, two hours for visual arts, one hour for library mainly focusing on English and Arabic Language said Al Khater. One hour every week will be allocated for outdoor activities and two for physical education and one hour for projects alternately between English and Science she stressed.
The meeting comes within the framework of preparation for the next academic year 2017-2018 to discuss the optimal daily school workflow, especially as the allocations for the subjects at the primary and preparatory levels will be adjusted next year together with the distribution of the school timetable in the aforementioned stages.
