The Ministry of Education and Higher Education will provide career counselling and academic guidance to all preparatory school students from this year, Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi has said.
The initiative aims at connecting education outcomes with the job market.
For this purpose, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has partnered with Qatar Career Development Center (QCDC) to train all academic guides and professionals in the selected schools.
Speaking in a Qatar TV programme ‘Al Khulasa’ yesterday, the Minister said that academic and professional guidance is very important and at present it is available at secondary schools.
To a question about the response of students to the initiative, she said: “Following the Ministry’s strategy in this regard, we held a number of workshops on this topic where a large number of students participated. This has been one of their demands.”
She said that there are 34 higher education institutions operating in Qatar, offering 365 different academic programmes, a diversity that serves the needs of the labour market.
“The only challenge that we are facing is the number of students being admitted in arts are more than those opting the science stream,” said the Minister.
Explaining the root cause of this, she said that early professional guidance will help them to discover their talents and inclination to choose the right stream early on.
The Minister emphasised parents’ involvement for the success of the education process in the country, asking them to give more time to their children for their better academic performance.
“Qatar Education Platform was launched in January this year; 99.2 percent of teachers used this platform actively, while 92.8 percent students used the platform,” said the Minister.
However, she said the number of parents who used this platform did not cross more than 9 percent.
“Now we are studying this issue because the involvement of parents is very important to improve the academic achievements of students,” the Minister said.
She said the Ministry will implement a youth well-being programme in government schools in partnership with Doha International Family Institute (DIFI) this year.
“We conducted studies on youth, enabling them for social engagement,” said the Minister. Speaking about the efforts of the Ministry on early education, she said admission rate in early education is 45 percent at present, which is an average. “We want to increase it significantly.”
Regarding other initiatives, she said: “‘Madrasti Mujtami’ is focusing on quality life of students, ‘Bedaya Muwaffaqa’ on training new teachers, enabling them to transfer from academic life to practical life as professional teachers in schools.”
She said the Ministry had also launched a separate programme for students with disabilities by providing a dedicated school for them – Al Hidaya School. This initiative was launched in 2007.
“Now we have five schools covering all grades – primary, preparatory and secondary for students with disabilities. These schools are also running professional streams, enabling their students to join the job market after graduation.”
She said the Ministry is also running a ‘merger programme’ in 70 schools for boys and girls across the country where students with disabilities receive education with all necessary services.
“There is another initiative to prepare 70 other schools to launch the ‘merger programme’ to accommodate students with different kinds of disabilities. The most recent initiative is to expand specialist schools for students with disabilities,” said the Minister.