Elimination of public schools disrupts academic vouchers Wednesday, 29 December 2010 02:41

One of the priorities of the Supreme Education Council (SEC) is to put forward various alternatives for education to its citizens. This was the SEC’s basis for launching and pushing for the draft educational voucher program in order to provide educational alternatives for parents who wish to teach their children in private or foreign schools. The voucher calls for freedom of Qataris to choose schools for their children. However, the decision to close all public schools, convert them to independent schools, and suspend the former Ministry of Education contradicts that argument because it deprives parents who want to bring up their children under the former system from doing so. Aren’t public schools an alternative for education, which the SEC calls for?

The concept of independent schools is under the educational reform initiative, but even after seven years, its vision is still cloudy. Perhaps the biggest mistake that the initiative fell into is breaking up, demolishing, and dispersing the educational system as whole upon which the former Ministry of Education stood. After that, well-equipped schools emerged with students who are prepared to learn but the schools are devoid of educational bodies, experiences, and of course, that impacted the development of appropriate curricula and hindered processes of selection, evaluation and monitoring. Not to mention that the absence of Qatari teachers who were the largest base of qualified and skilled labor in the country after they accumulated experience over decades. Unfortunately, that has been squandered with the collapse of the Ministry of Education and its entire wealth of experience in inspection, curricula, and broad base of teachers.

If only independent schools did not reject previous faculty as the schools and treat the former teachers with a sense of superiority as if they were of inferior mentalities, ideas, and methods. Had independent schools relied on the simplicity of the mission of education, focused in a more organic way on the seriousness and dedication required to integrate students, there would have been no need to complicate things with meetings and haggling, and roundabout decision-making. Instead, through this aggressive approach, independent schools disbanded, disintegrated, and uprooted qualified teachers whose efforts graduated generations of Qataris.

Vouchers are a form of funding granted by the government for qualified students to cover the costs of tuition fees in schools participating in the voucher program, which are private and foreign schools. The schools joined the program in order to meet criteria of quality of education and apply appropriate methods as defined by the SEC. The selection of participating schools in the voucher program is based on three areas: curriculum, quality assurance at the school level, and the standing of teachers and their qualifications. The voucher program focuses primarily on schools with a global reputation, which are encouraged to open branches in Qatar to follow the same system of currently existing international schools.

If only the development of mainstream independent schools and the elimination of public schools were not rushed into. Perhaps then those who are opposed to independent schools would have the option to go to public schools, while those in favor of independent schools could enroll in those. In the meantime, all who were seeking foreign education and attending private schools could do so using the vouchers.

Do you know what I expect if that is what happened? Conservatives, traditionalists, and those who are strictly religious would have remained in public schools and a similar number of Qataris and foreign government workers would enroll in independent schools, because regardless of the criticism directed at those schools, many perceive them as a moderate application of Arabic, religious sciences, education, and English. In fact, to the surprise of many, I predict that there would have been a queue of Qataris waiting to use their vouchers to enroll in foreign and private schools.

Why is that a surprise? Because the only voices we hear are those of opponents of the independent schools – the same voices that are anguished over the absence of public schools. Meanwhile, there is a large number of Qatari students in foreign schools, both the sons and daughters of employees whose employers cover educational expenses. There are even those who pay for private schools on their own account even though they are just average employees but they see these schools as investments in their children. Just as these parents have their personal standards pushing them to become fierce advocates of private schools, other parents have their standards causing them to reject the same schools, and focus instead on educational systems with Shariah law and the Arabic language as bases for education that they cannot do without.

People are of different walks of life, tastes, minds, and attitudes. While a way has been paved for students to apply to private and foreign schools, independent schools have been ruled as the only option for conservatives and traditionalists after public schools were eliminated. This has created a crack in the system that cannot be compensated as it is those people’s right to see the survival of the schools that they deem appropriate. Just the same, it is the right of the other two groups of people to access the educational systems that they desire. It is their right - not the state’s - to determine the type of education they desired for their children. Through this crack, tension has mounted to the point that some conservatives prefer to home-school their children, and led to unprovoked attacks on independent schools, and sometimes even attempts to distort the image of those schools to show them as failures.

Returning to the subject of vouchers, they are a great opportunity for citizens who want them, but a little vague in their application as they state that those eligible are, “students whose parents work in the private sector, are unemployed, or retired, and students whose parents do not receive allowances for their children’s education”. Who are these groups of people? Are they traders, and investors, or mostly retirees? The latter’s children are grown and have graduated already, while the unemployed and those requiring special needs are only a very few.

Perhaps vouchers are intended for ordinary citizens whose employers do not cover their children’s educational fees, and these may be in the public and private sector. In any case, the SEC should not deprive any Qatari children of this educational opportunity due to the inability of their parents. The qualifications should include the readiness of each applicant, exhibiting diligence, thus earning a nomination from his/her present school, and earning admission from foreign or private schools. That means that an unqualified and unenthusiastic student doesn’t take the place of another student or the opportunity away from him/her. This is especially important since the expenses paid by the SEC for each voucher are equal to what would be spent on a student’s fees in an independent school, and the difference must be covered out of the parents’ pockets. Expenses beyond vouchers pose another challenge for those seeking private/foreign education options for their children, while others cannot afford these schools even with vouchers.

The cost of education per student in independent schools is QR 19,000 at the primary school level, 19,400 for preparatory school, and 21,800 in secondary school. The vouchers are paid to the schools directly. However, as previously mentioned, the conditions of using vouchers are vague and perhaps that explains why they are misapplied. Last May, the Council of Ministers approved a draft decision proposed by the Minister of Higher Education and Secretary General of the SEC on the formation of a joint committee to activate the voucher system. Although it was already announced years ago, discussed from time to time since then, and then set aside after that, independent schools are experiencing growing problems that don’t allow for the application of vouchers. With the absence of solutions for families who are deprived of providing their children with the traditional form of education that they trust and believe in not only for their own children but for the country, the SEC should respect those people rather than defy them, trample on their beliefs and force them onto paths that they do not accept.

Independent schools have their patrons and foreign schools have those who believe in them to the point that they are willing to pay for them out of their own pockets. Don’t deprive those who wish to go to public schools from their choice, and only then will vouchers have a meaningful, clear purpose. The urgent rush toward forming independent schools was more harmful than it was beneficial to their purpose. The dissolution of the Ministry of Education is more damaging than the output derived from independent schools.

The SEC said that the voucher program will become an umbrella of the Qatari educational system, meaning that there will be alternatives to education, however, they would not be complete without a basic structure in the form of traditional public education. That would be an option that takes into account the wishes of parents and respect their beliefs, rather than snatching away their freedom to raise their children before their very eyes. If this step was revised and public schools were reestablished, it will calm things down and complement the development of independent schools without pressure and disturbance. In the name of human rights, the rights of citizens to education that conforms with their beliefs, orientation, and principles must be respected.

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