A teacher and students at Hassan bin Thabit Independent Secondary School for Boys yesterday.
Doha: Independent schools and a number of private schools resumed classes yesterday after the Spring break. On the first day, around 88 percent attendance was reported in primary and preparatory Independent schools and 55 percent in secondary schools.
About 113,429 students from 193 Independent schools and kindergartens have entered their second semester. Over 183,448 students from 259 private schools and kindergartens are also back to their classes ending the spring vacation.
There are more than 27,000 teachers and administrative employees working in the three education levels and kindergartens under the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Qatar has three types of private schools — community schools which follow the school calendar in their respective countries, international schools following international education system and calendar and private schools following the Qatari national curriculum and school calendar.
These differences create slight differences in the timing of holidays of these schools, said the ministry in a statement.
With the beginning of the second semester of the academic year, the ministry has urged parents to work jointly with schools and encourage students to achieve excellence in education. The ministry said that over 2,000 buses of different sizes are transporting students of Independent schools from different locations in the country at the same time.
The examination of the second semester will take place in accordance with the declared schedule, between May 25 and June 10 for grades up to nine. Exams of grades 10 and 11 will take place between May 28 and June 13.
The Ministry has urged the public to get the required information regarding the academic calendar from the official resources of the ministry including its official website (www.edu.gov.qa).
School administrators said that they had communicated with parents through SMS reminding them of the school opening date and the importance of attendance from the first day of the new semester.
On the other hand, the ministry has begun enrichment lessons through You Tube videos of four to eight minutes. It has published over 1,000 video clips the followers of which have reached more than 770,000 and the number of subscribers has exceeded 5337 students from inside and outside Qatar. The ministry has invited students and parents to access these lessons which include materials related to topics needed for the second semester.
