Introduction and background
Qatar, one of the greatest economies in the Arabian Gulf is witnessing a
rapid development in different state industries. One of which is the
educational revolutionary reforms and the bold initiative, Education for a
New Era, sponsored and adopted by Her Highness Shiekha Moza, the
consort of the Emir of Qatar.
To fulfill the requirements of this initiative “Education for a new Era”, the
Supreme Education Council (SEC) was established by an Emiri decree in
Nov 2002 with a major goal to provide the learners with high quality
educational experiences and to implement a lifelong learning for all
students. The Qatar education reform initiative reflects four principles:
autonomy, accountability, variety and choice. To implement the education
reform, the SEC established a number of government-funded Independent
Schools over a multi-year period and implements annual assessments to
measure student learning and school performance.
Even though the SEC exerts large efforts and attempts to ensure that
school materials and human resources are allocated equitably across
schools; the SEC policies and provisions applied to the independent
schools had resulted in a considerable variation among schools (for
example, each school is free to develop its own curriculum, textbooks and
other learning resources). These variations are recorded in the schools’
report cards developed by the SEC.
However, because of its high level living standards, Qatar has become a
favorable place to live and work for hundreds of thousands of skillful
manpower coming from all over the world. This has rendered the Qatari
society and consequently the schools’ environment into a multicultural
heterogeneous one.