DOHA: A number of angry parents of students who failed in the second term of the secondary school examination this year converged at the office of the education minister on Tuesday and demanded that the results be revoked.
The minister, who made the parents wait for a while and met with them later, put his foot down and tried to pacify them, but said in a determined tone the results were final and no alterations were possible. “This is the system school, college and university administrations follow the world over. We cannot change the results to please you,” said the Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahid Al Hammadi, who is also Secretary-General of the Supreme Education Council (SEC). The parents gathered at the tower in Al Dafna, the headquarters of the SEC that houses the minister’s office.
Parents blamed the online evaluation system for the high percentage of students who failed in the second term examination of the final year of the three-year secondary school.
The pass percentage in schools that follow the government curriculum was 42 for science stream, 41.2 for arts stream with French language, and 62 for arts with mathematics and science as extra subjects. Independent Schools, that had 1,140 students — the maximum among all the schools —had 62.5 percent result.
At special schools that teach religion, for instance, the pass percentage was higher but only three students appeared in the examination and two of them passed.
In Qatar, children have 12 years of schooling — six at the primary level, and three each for preparatory and secondary levels.
Several parents complained that the results had come as a shocker for them since their children were high performers and very good students.
At least one parent who gave his name as Faleh Al Hajri, a public servant, said the Independent Schools were of no use. “We want the old school education system to be back where there were separate administrations for each level — primary, preparatory and secondary.”
The parents said the second term examination of the final year of the secondary school examination was quite tough and questions for some subjects were asked out of the course.
“This was particularly true of the chemistry and mathematics papers,” said a parent whose daughter, he said, had failed in both subjects.
The minister said that instead of paying attention to their children’s education only after the final examination, parents would do better to monitor them the whole year.
He said the local media had wrongly reported that the pass percentage in the secondary examination was 70. The fact is that the percentage varies between 10 and 12.
How a student would perform in the second term would be amply clear from his first term results, said the minister. “So, attention should have been paid by you then.”
He said rules allowed re-evaluation in the case of a student, so parents who believe their children failed because their papers were not evaluated properly could sit with an evaluator and see for themselves how their children performed, but they must follow due procedures.
The Peninsula
