Doha, Qatar: Over 380,000 students will return to 1,122 government and private schools and kindergartens tomorrow after midterm break.
The schools will open today for teachers in preparation to welcome back students tomorrow. Schools have informed parents about the reopening through text messages.
“On the occasion of the approaching end of the mid-term school holidays, we are pleased to remind you the date for the resumption of schools for the second semester of this year which is Monday (January 8, 2024)," said a government primary school in a message to parents.
The school will open at 7am and end at 12:45pm, except for Thursdays when the school will end at 12:30pm, the message said.
A government secondary school, on the other hand, said its hours will be from 7am to 1:25pm from Sunday to Tuesday and from 7am to 12:40pm on Wednesday and Thursday.
“The Ministry of Education and Higher Education is providing qualified teachers and adequate number of schools equipped with modern audio visual aids, enabling students to get quality education to pursue higher studies and compete in the job market,” said Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al Nuaimi.
Speaking to Qatar TV recently, he said the number of students from KG to grade 12 has reached about 380,000 in addition to about 40,000 students in universities and higher education intuitions.
The number of government schools reached 214 which enrolled 136,601 students for the academic year 2023-24. As many as 14,648 qualified teachers are teaching in government schools. A total of 63 government kindergartens are also operating across the country,” said Al Nuaimi.
He said the number of private schools rose to 230, and they enrolled 236,448 students in the current academic year. “Over 14,000 teachers are working with private schools. There are 115 private kindergartens, enhancing early-childhood education,” Al Nuaimi said.
He said a number of students were enrolled in ‘3-year-old’ level of public kindergartens for the academic year 2023-24 as a pilot project. “The project is expected to be implemented in remaining government KGs from the next academic year. We planned to enrol students from age three in place of age four in government KGs in coming years,” he said.
He said human development is one of the pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030 and therefore education is a top priority to provide a distinctive environment that stimulates innovation and quality education.
“The strategic plan includes many programmes and initiatives that will improve the educational sector in the country in coming years,” said Al Nuaimi.
