DOHA: The move by the Supreme Education Council (SEC) relaxing the admission rules for private school students has come as a great relief to a number of students and parents.
Academic circles view the move as an indication of the SEC becoming more considerate about the problems and concerns of private school students.
A senior SEC official categorically said on Sunday that expatriate students seeking admission in a private school are no more required to produce an equivalency certificate from the SEC.
They can now be enrolled directly with a transfer certificate obtained from the institution they previously studied provided they meet other admission requirements.
According to a rule introduced by the SEC last year, all new students from abroad moving to a private school in Qatar were required to get their transfer certificates attested by the authorities concerned in their home countries as well as the Qatari embassies there.
This certificate had to be submitted to the SEC during admission, for issuing an equivalency certificate.
“If this equivalency certificate is not required, it means that parents and students need not have to go through the long attestation procedures back home. It will be a great relief for them. We have raised this issue to the SEC officials and it seems they have responded positively,” principal of an Indian school told this daily yesterday.
He, however added that his school had not received any new directive from the SEC in this regard until now.
An expatriate professional who recently got his son enrolled in an Indian school said the SEC move has come as a boon.
“We were supposed to submit the attested transfer certificate to the school for SEC approval within a month. Agencies here are charging a minimum QR500 as service fee for attesting one document. This is a good news for me and I hope it would not be proved wrong,” he said.
The new admission guidelines issued by the SEC also say that students no more require permission from the SEC to move from one private school to another. Parents have the right to transfer children between private schools without the SEC permission, provided seats are available in the appropriate grade.
The SEC official has warned the schools against admitting students above their permitted capacity, but school sources say that the SEC is now allowing to admit up to 35 students in one class, if the class room has enough space. The SEC had earlier put a cap of 30 students in one class.
“We believe the SEC is now more aware about the severe space constraints in many private schools,” said an official.
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