The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has employed inspectors with judicial powers to catch people offering private tuitions, in violation of the law, a senior official has said.
“Private tuitions are banned by the law. Newspapers are bound not to carry advertisements about private tuitions,” said Hassan Al Muhammadi, Director, Public Relations Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The official said that no private school has been granted permission until now to increase the tuition fees this year.
“The deadline for receiving applications has ended. Several schools have sought permission to raise the fees and the decision will be announced on March 1,” said Al Muhammadi.
He said some parents have lodged complaints with the Ministry saying they have received messages from schools informing about a fee hike.
“When we checked the messages, we came to know that they are only informing about the possibility of a fee hike,” said Al Muhammadi, answering queries from the public in the popular talk-show on Qatar TV Watani Al Habib.
"The increase in fees is subject to special procedures and schools are legally bound to explain the reasons behind the increase. Simply applying for permission to increase the fees doesn’t mean that the school has got the approval. We will give permission only to the deserving schools,” said the official.
He said that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education had closed down a nursery (crèche) "Bedayat" which was opened as an initiative of the Ministry.
Al Mohammadi said that a small number of students were registered in the nursery and many more were on the waiting list.
"Most of the employees of Bedayat were Qataris and they will be transferred to other appropriate seats," he added.
He said that the parents have other alternatives like private nurseries licensed by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour & Social Affairs.
“The nursery was just an initiative of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry decided to close it down due to availability of plenty of other alternatives,” he added.
He said there is uniformity in summer vacation of all the private and Independent schools.
"The commencement of the academic year is almost the same and the difference is only in Spring vacations."
