The Qatar Education Myth?
Sheikha Moza at the World Innovation Summit for Education which started in Doha yesterday has been quoted as saying:
"Qatar has put education at the very heart of government policy".
Whilst this is a fabulous sentiment, is it actually true in practice?
Millions of riyals have been poured into Education City but who is actually benefitting from this state of the art initiative? Last year a grand total of 242 students (only half of whom were Qataris) graduated from 6 of its major universities. Whilst they undoubtedly received an excellent education, is this number of graduates really the anticipated ‘return’ on such a huge investment? Having walked the corridors of most of these universities I can speak from experience when I say the silence is deafening.
Perhaps more meaningful for most expatriate parents reading this forum is the quality and availability of education for younger students. Scrolling through the hundreds of posts on this website on the subject of education there is a distinct mood of dissatisfaction. Virtually no private school remains unscathed by the comments of disgruntled parents.
What are the reasons for this?
It would appear that the notion of smaller private schools where parents and students receive a personalized service has been lost in translation. Schools for expatriate students now vie with each other to put as many ‘bums on seats’ as possible in their shiny (or in some cases, not so shiny) behemoth buildings. The result of this is a 1984 Orwellian style education system that completely depersonalizes the individual.
The owners and managers in the majority of English-speaking private schools increasingly view students as an economic statistic, as a means to an end to boost profitability. However, on the flip side, the majority of these schools reject large numbers of students who are perceived as being too labour intensive to support. This includes any student who has special educational needs or who cannot speak fluent English.
Those schools regarded as having a ‘better’ reputation are not irreproachable either. The right passport and a father employed by the right company will instantly secure Joe Student a place whilst others lamentably wait in endless lines behind him. The parents of these children have little choice but to opt for schools providing dodgy education standards delivered by demoralized low paid teachers. In the worst cases families are fractured as mothers return to their home countries without dad.
The Supreme Education Council cheerfully turns a blind eye to the hundreds of families who find themselves in this situation. We all know that Qatar is a truly multicultural society. Do you ever stop to think who might be in the pilot seat when your plane takes off from Doha? Chances are it is a Greek or a Mexican or a Dutchman. Qatar is host to countless nationalities but are these diverse nations catered for by the education system that is “at the very heart of government policy”? The answer is most definitely no.
A friend of mine was telling me the other day about an education centre in Doha that has recently had to close because the Supreme Education Council deemed it was ‘too much like a school’. The centre duly applied for a private school license as recommended by the powers that be. In fact it applied three times this year and each time the application was rejected.
The reason for the rejections was not that the centre did not have a suitable building. It occupies a building that far exceeds all legal guidelines. Nor was the rejection due to poorly qualified teaching personnel. The center employs over 90% UK trained and qualified teachers. Nor was the rejection due to sub-standard curriculum or policies. The centre has been in business for over eight years and has had plenty of time to fine tune its curriculum (UK) and develop procedures.
No. The reason for the rejection was that the Supreme Education Council only accepts applications in November and December each year. Unfortunately the centre and its 150 students could not wait that long and it has subsequently closed its doors. Perhaps most poignantly this closure affects students who do not speak English, who have mild special educational needs or who are simply ill-suited to big shiny Orwellian schools. The management of the centre have apparently taken their case to the very top and met with the Minister of Education. His reaction when told that these families have nowhere else to go was: “I don’t care”. (Although I am sure this statement was not noted in the minutes).
More and more pressure is being exerted on private schools to enroll Qatari students (25% of seats must now be reserved). It is now compulsory to teach Arabic, Islamic Studies and Qatar history. I personally have no problem with this Supreme Education Council directive. However, I do have a huge problem with the apparent lack of reciprocation. The Supreme Education Council has extended its voucher system to over 170 independent (public) schools, offering parents up to QR28,000 per year in financial aid towards private school fees. This raises questions about the education standards in independent schools and also increases the burden on already-oversubscribed private schools.
I suppose supply will eventually catch up with demand but right now, in my humble opinion, it would seem that the Supreme Education Council is determined to destroy the private education system in Qatar through lack of support, vision, flexibility and clear directives. The education centre mentioned above may be a small drop in the ocean but its closure is a telling indicator of the importance this government really does place on educating its citizens.
our school has been closed under the similar conditions as the centre from the opening post...it could even be the same school..a "sponsor" promised to help with getting the licence from SEC, promised to solve financial issues, to pay salaries and housing accomodation to staff members, to do his best to help the school to re-open .
He realy did get the licence...but on his name, for the different school to be opened in septenber 2013!
And he doesn't care for all those kids, parents, staff.. He doesn't have any will to keep his promises.
And what now? Where should all those kids go now, at the end of the autumn term? There are many kids who can speak english fluently,but also there are kids which just started to learn english..what about them? What about those kids with all kinds of learning disabilities? Don't they have right to be taught properly?
I would say that this is a myth..at least partialy. There is no concern in this country for the expats.The government is emproving conditions but only for Qataris. This proclamation about 1/4 of secondary private schools quota for them proves it. Or..?
It will make us even harder to get place in the schools for our kids. And to those of us-holders of the "wrong" passports almost impossible :(
Core issue is that teachers are not well paid, hence, anyone who is willing to wake up early and accept traffic jamms will be hired to teach.
DESS prioritizes British passport holders, too.
The problems are made even worse by the SEC's constant meddling with curriculums of the better schools.
Attempting to run before learning to walk. The foreign university issue is a facade. Universities brought in at extremely high costs to portray an image, but not yet offering any real value.
We are one of those fractured families who had to send both our kids back to live with their grandparents to finish their secondary education. Our daughter came to Qatar at 14 as an Honor student. Ended up failing core math at IGCSE,which excluded her from further education here. Now she is at University in the UK, getting a 95% average in calculus, go figure. Three acquaintances asked about job opportunities in Qatar, I said don't even think about it just because of the schools. Considering the dreadful state of education for expats here, why can't the Embassies be more pro-active in supporting the establishment of national schools here in coordination with the SEC? That ought to be one of their primary "citizen services". Why does Doha College give preference to British passport holders, but other schools don't?
Highlighting the quandary most expat, if not all expat, parents go through here in Qatar: educating our kids. Considering the high price one has to pay here for schools and tuitions, the quality somehow doesn't always match up. And the schools can be so insecure and unsure in every sense.
My daughter was studying in a private school for two years when all of a sudden, on the last day of the second term, we were greeted with a slip of paper conveying to us, in an oh so casual manner, that the school was to be closed down as of that day! God have mercy! Mind you they said not a word before, we had no inkling at all. The struggle we had to find her a new school was tough to say the least, since most schools had closed or were closing for summer vacation, and/or were already full. Thank God she was in grade 3 and not in the senior grades, and my heart went out to those kids who were. I can't even imagine the plight of their parents.
And during our quest we found plenty of flaws in the whole education system itself here that I will not go into now.
Perhaps we might see an improvement soon in the essential aspect of education and the system surrounding it here in Qatar..but as of now it sure has a long way to go before it can be deemed even remotely acceptable and easily achievable for everyone.
I think its just the beginning. It will take a long time for us to see its benefits and growth. I am sure that Govt. has seen it as a long term investment . As Bachus said , it has given an option for those who don't want to go to US or Europe. Its a nice initiative but it will take time for it to be a success story.
Sheikha Moza was quoted on QBS as saying that there were severe flaws in the education system. At least, she seems to know about it!
there are a lot of Qatari females who are studying in the UK and US.
pnguyen--but there is the social factor as well. How many conservative Muslim families are prepared to send their 18-year-old daughters to the U.S. or Europe for a high quality education?
From a profitability standpoint in the short term, I agree. However, take away Education City and you would be severely limiting female opportunities. And let's face it, Qataris are so outnumbered that educating women into professional position will be essential to the country's independence. In that since, Education City is priceless.
The other factor, of course, is the global visibility. Educational investment demonstrates civility, culture, long-term planning, etc. And you get more bang for your buck in publicity by bringing in world-class universities than creating good secondary schools. If you want to push the point, why not take all the money invested in 2022 and put it in secondary education (it's a lot more and a soccer tournament is not going to make much of impact on the long-term success of Qatar the way a good secondary education system will).
You make a great point. A top tier research university brings other economic values to the community. It also allows secondary students to strive for something worth getting into; this is not normally quantifiable.
What I don't understand is the true value (including economic generation) in spending so much money per student. Is this a sustainable endeavor? What would happen if the same amount of money per student was spent in secondary and primary education. I think its more about show and exclusivity at the expense of other young children who will never have the opportunity to attend Education City.
Poor primary and secondary education is great business for the post-secondary industry. No where have I ever heard of a pre-foundation program before a foundation program that is before a premed program at Cornell's Medical School. It seems like most students exiting high school need foundation classes which are normally taught by higher qualified and higher paid post-secondary faculty.
If Qatar improves their primary and secondary education, the job market would shrink dramatically for collegiate foundation programs. Please think of the families that will be affected and the high pay that they will lose. :)
i need to leave my kids and wife back home, and dont bother of moving my fam. and putting them here in school,.because the education system s##ks,.there better off where the are now,.back home (atleast education wise)
There is a major discontinuity between the vision and the implementation.
BEING EDUCATED IS THE ONLY WEALTH YOU COULD BRING ANYWHERE YOU GO WITHOUT BEING SCARED IT MIGHT BE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU.
QDClover has a good point. There is a distinct lack of incentive for many Qataris, when high paying jobs are readily available.
Primary and secondary education in this country is (generally) terrible with only a handful of exceptions. A lot of this is due to rapid growth and poor planning.
The OP's comments on Education City are leaving out the fact that these are often research universities that generate other things besides graduates. Scientific patents, solutions to local engineering problems, training and support for local industries and services (like the medical and engineering schools do) etc., etc. are just some of the things they generate. To measure them solely on the number of Qatari graduates they generate misses the point.
Education in the local Primary and Secondary Schools is next to useless. Most of these kids have to go for extended foundation studies at colleges if they intend to join any college.
When locals don't need a first class education to land a high paying job why would they care?