DOHA: Not all parents of Qatari children going to private schools are beneficiaries of the School Voucher whereby the government pays all their fees.
Qatari students attending private schools not accredited by the Supreme Education Council (SEC) for the Voucher System are not eligible to get the voucher.
The state pays QR28,000 ($7,690) per year to a Qatari student enrolled in an SEC-approved private school as part of the Voucher System.
There are 154 private schools in the country, according to Ministry of Education and Higher Education figures.
While many of them are expatriate community and embassy schools, private schools, including the international ones, may be over 100. But only 71 of these schools are accredited by the SEC and part of the Voucher System in the current academic year (2014-15).
Accreditation is accorded by the SEC on the basis of criteria it has set, including the standard of education and facilities.
Therefore, the parents of those students are unhappy who are going to unaccredited schools as they are denied the privilege of the free voucher system.
An aggrieved parent, Walid Al Emadi, said he finds it strange that while all private schools have been licensed by the SEC, it has accredited only 71 for the voucher system.
“This is a contradiction. If these schools don’t impart quality education and don’t have the required facilities, then why the SEC has given them the licence,” Al Emadi said.
He told Al Sharq that the schools that are part of the voucher system are over-crowded, so citizens are forced to send their children to other private schools.
Hamad Khalfan Al Kuwari, another aggrieved parent, said he was happy to learn about the voucher system and the fact that all Qatari students were to be its beneficiaries. “But I was shocked to know that only those students enrolled in SEC-approved schools are to benefit from the system,” said Al Kuwari.
A Qatari family has many schoolgoing children and many don’t attend SEC-accredited schools. “So the SEC must provide seats to these children in its approved schools,” he said.
Yet another parent, Ali Al Baker, said he had been hearing about the voucher system and was upset. “Either the SEC approves all schools or brings the standards of all private schools to its standard.”
The Peninsula
