(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Supreme Education Council (SEC) has announced new conditions for obtaining a licence to operate private schools for the 2015-16 academic year.
Applications for licences to run new private schools can be submitted twice a year - from November 1 and March 1 - over a period of one month on each occasion, local Arabic daily Al Sharq has reported.
According to the SEC, the process of issuing a licence to operate a private school will take up to three months after the initial approval. Those rejected, including incomplete ones, can be submitted again only on the designated dates as mentioned above.
To get approval, 25% of the students at a private school have to be Qataris, the council has stressed. Expatriate community schools, though, are exempted from this condition.
A handbook listing the details of the application process notes that the SEC has the right to check all the records and documents of such schools pertaining to their staff, students and other relevant matters.
Besides, the SEC Private Schools Office, Curriculum Standards Office and Service Centre will prepare a report on the outcome of the evaluation of applications submitted to open a new school. Further, the department concerned at the council will conduct a field visit to the school site and building for inspection and check if they comply with the SEC's standards for private schools.
Applications for new private schools can be submitted by a company locally registered in the country, an international firm not currently registered in Qatar or an individual/group of partners seeking to set up a company in Qatar as soon as their application is accepted.
The academic year for private schools should be in line with the SEC's guidelines, starting in September and taking into account national holidays. At the same time, private schools have the liberty to decide on other holidays.
Subjects such as Qatar's history, Arabic language and Islamic studies for Muslim students should be a part of the curriculum of private schools, the SEC has said.
The handbook also specifies the standard school space and size for every educational stage as well as the number of students.
Schools in Qatar fall mostly in three categories- independent, private and international schools. Independent schools are state-funded schools with the autonomy to recruit teachers and staff, and establish their own methods of teaching. The amount of funding allocated to each independent school depends on the number of teachers and students.
Independent schools are free for Qatari citizens. Non-Qatari enrollments are subject to individual school policy.
As of 2010, all public schools have been converted to independent schools.
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