DOHA: The pupil-teacher ratio in Qatar at all levels of school education is impressive compared to world standards.
There was one teacher for every 10.59 students on average in the school year 2013-14, official figures show.
An idea of global average can be had from World Bank data which shows that there was one teacher for every 45 students in primary schools in Afghanistan in 2013.
Some countries, as per the data, have one teacher for every nine students.
Official statistics suggest that there were 836 schools, 245,232 students (male and female), 10,939 classes and 23,155 teachers in Qatar in 2013-14.
Of the schools, 502 were mixed (co-ed institutions where boys and girls study), 162 girls’ and 172 boys’ schools.
Pre-primary schools totalled 344 and primary schools 226. There were 143 preparatory and 121 general secondary schools.
Although girls’ schools were less than those for boys, they had 58,145 students compared to 55,509 in boys’ schools.
But girls’ schools had more teachers (7,444) than boys’ schools (6,937)
The Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics released the data in the Chapter on Education in its Annual Statistical Abstract for 2014. The chapter provides key statistics on student enrolments, schools and teachers in the country. As for the number of students in a classroom, the average for boys’ schools was 23.72 and 25.11 for girls’ schools.
The 502 mixed schools had 131,578 students in 2013-14 and 6,239 classes. On average, the class strength was 21.08.
In all schools, the number of students in a class averaged 22.41 in 2013-14. But the teacher-student ratio was high in mixed schools. There was one teacher for every 15 students, while the average for girls’ schools was 7.81 and eight for boys’ schools.
The maximum number of teachers and students were in primary schools — 10,478 teachers and 116,721 students.
The preparatory schools had more students (46,137) and teachers (4,411) than the secondary schools which had 37,511 students and 4,213 teachers.
Pre-primary schools had 44,275 students and 3,979 teachers.
In these schools, out of 3,978 teachers, only one was male, in a private school. No government pre-primary school had a male teacher.
In the primary schools, there were 8,990 woman teachers compared to 1,488 male counterparts.
The ratio of male teachers was slightly up in preparatory schools (1,905 men; 2,506 women). In secondary schools, there were 2,041 male and 2,246 female teachers.
Government schools had relatively lower student numbers (98,908) and more teachers (13,326) — one teacher for every 7.42 students and private schools had 146,324 students and 9,829 teachers — one teacher for every 14.88 students.
Of all students at all levels in all schools, 157,196 were non-Qatari and 88,036 Qatari.
Private schools had 28,517 Qatari students and government schools 59,519. Twenty-four students aged 22 were in secondary schools, including 18 women.
THE PENINSULA
