New school times

It must be tougher and I don't believe it will reap much benefits as the kids will be prolly too pooped out to concentrate much on anything let alone grasp a new language. Hope the teachers then make the classes as fun,captivating and creative as possible.. Not to mention loud nuff to snap them outta their sleepy haze!

Like I said above, thank goodness my children go to a community expat school. None of these shenanigans. The day you describe is far too long.

It used to be 7.15am - 12.15pm for Early years, 7am - 12.45pm for KS1 and 7am - 1pm for KS2. Now its 7 - 12.30 for early years and started off 7am - 1.40pm for KS1 & KS2, now its 1.30pm.

Big jump for the wee ones especially KS1

7am-1.30am is my daughter's timing and she attends one of the Independant Arabic schools. Are these Internantional schools actually going on for longer? That would be very taxing!

And your point is?

Ah ok Mt, it was different in the school my child used to go to.

Its not mixed Arabic speaking children go with one teacher and the Arabic 2nd language children with another.

Well, as to my experience, if you mix Arabic and non Arabic speakers who, obviously, are on totally different levels in the same class, things have to go down the drain. Plus, the teaching methods of the Arabic teachers and the other teachers are vastly different.

2 hours of Arabic used to be obligatory to all Arabic speaking children and 1 hour of Islamic studies to Muslim children. Now they have introduced 4 hours of Arabic to all Arabic speaking children AND non-Arabic speaking children. 2hours of Islamic and 2 hours of Qatar History to all students.

I have had mixed opinions so far from parents but heard quite a lot of negative ones.

Kids are absolutely shattered come 1 o'clock.

Well to answer your question I am really not happy.

They are not staying any longer but the number of arabic lessons are increased.

But as the teachers are the same so to cover the time they are introducing a lot of concepts within a week which is difficult for students to cover

And I agree with above that the arabic teachers dont really know how to teach arabic specially to the non -arabs.

Coming from Dubai, where it's mandatory, surprised that it is not here.

My children learned quite al ot in kg1 and grade 1, they learned the alphabet, learned how to read and write. They didn't always understand what they were reading, nonetheless I was shocked on how much they had grasped the language. Went back to Canada for a year and now no Arabic. I am seriously thinking of hiring a private Arabic teacher. I'm sure it would all come rushing back to them.

My kids learned Arabic from their friends, because they spent a lot of time together at the beach and in the dunes! It's easy as that. In their school Arabic was a must for Arabs, but a choice for non-Arabs.

nomerci--the various reasons are that they are hardly any internationally qualified primary and secondary teachers who are qualified to teach Arabic. I have friends who have sent their kids to Compass and other decent international schools who offer Arabic for years, and they've learned very little. Parents who are serious about it end up hiring private tutors.

I think the idea of learning Arabic is great, but the whole implementation of it has been poorly planned and executed and further underlined parents' poor impression of the SEC as being more motivated by politics than in children's education.

those subjects were there in the 80's in all the schools.

lost in Qatar, I would not worry...very few children, even in schools where Arabic classes are obligatory, actually learn Arabic....for various reasons.

My children don't even have any Arabic classes. The school only offers 1 second language choice in which I chose French. Honestly I'm a little disappointed they are not obliged to take Arabic.

To the OP: I makes me grateful that my children are in a "community" expat school, so they are not over-burdened with an unnecessarily long day trying to learn a language from what is almost invariably not a qualified teacher or instructor of it.

MissTeacher--they're paid less because almost none of them hold internationally recognized teaching qualifications that are on a par with classroom teachers.

Since when has the school day got longer ??? Not in our school!!!

Yes you are right osama and I dont understand why arabic staff get paid less than other staff. It is baffling to me. Some parents have complained at the new times, especially in the younger classes because the day is too long.

No rizks, I want to know how most parents feel about the longer day for their children, due to the new compulsory increase in these subjects.

Osama, that is probably because the Islamic/Arabic teachers are hired locally, on local contracts, where as the other teachers are hired from abroad, om expat contracts.

parents will not mind if school increased the lessons of arabic/islamic but teachers are suffering coz they forgot to increase their salaries.

in international schools all teachers are getting good salary except the arabic/islamic teachers, they get less than 30% of the other teacher's salary, simply no fair

m sorry, but is it tat u want to know why the kids hav to stay for extra hrs for Arabic/Islamic lessons in a british curriculum Int'l schools ?

I loved "Assembly" and R.E when I was at school.

So ?

?? The extra lessons are for the Arabic/Muslim children.

I think when u r in a Islamic country, one needs to learn the culture and their language too ?

Excuse me?

those subjects were there earlier.