The fifth annual report on schools and schooling in Qatar was released today by Mrs Aysha Al-Hashemi, Director of the School Evaluation Office of the Supreme Education Council’s Evaluation Institute. She described the report as “providing a statistical overview of many important aspects of Qatar’s school education for the 2008-2009 school year as well selected comparative data covering the 2004 to 2009 period.
View the report
Copies of the report are sent to all schools in Qatar and to senior educators and leaders in Qatar and the region. Others interested in the report can request a copy from the Evaluation Institute (by telephoning 455 9434).
In describing the report, Mrs Aysha Al-Hashemi said: “Schools and Schooling in Qatar 2008-2009” provides both a snapshot about Qatar’s schools as well as important trend data — detailing the schools’ main characteristics, provisions, processes and outcomes. It is designed to inform and provide objective, data-based considerations about schools and schooling. There are 265 tables and 123 graphical displays which contain information about schools overall as well as information for each stage of schooling (primary, preparatory and secondary) and type of school (Independent, Ministry of Education, Private Arabic and International).
It provides a comprehensive statistical overview of important aspects of Qatar’s schools and education, independently compiled by the Evaluation Institute of the Supreme Education Council”.
The scope of the report is broad. It is a rich set of data covering: students, parents, teachers and principals; school governance, leadership, services and facilities; educational provisions and approaches, teaching practices assessment methods, homework and student academic achievement; student attitudes and behaviour; parent interactions and involvement in schools; and client (ie parent and student) satisfaction with aspects of school.
In all, the report covers 292 schools and approximately 15,175 teachers and 149,850 students in Qatar. This year marks the first time in which data from the students and, their parents, teachers and principals in Qatar’s 42 International schools have been included in the report.
“Overall the picture is good, however, it is not entirely positive and there is certainly room for improvement in a number of areas”, said Mrs Aysha Al-Hashemi, “the important issue is, that data such as these, help us identify areas of potential strengths and weaknesses, as well as allow us to chart our progress and detect any changes that are occurring over time. The release of such information illustrates Qatar’s commitment to transparency, accountability and improvement in education.”
Mrs Aysha Al-Hashemi urged educators and the general community to take time to peruse and reflect on the statistics for themselves; however, she highlighted some of the major features of the information presented in the report. She acknowledged that student academic outcomes are critically important aspects of schools and that information about these is contained within the report. However, as these academic results have been covered in detailed reports issued previously by the Evaluation Institute, Mrs Aysha Al-Hashemi indicated she would focus on other aspects of the Schools and Schooling report on this occasion.
Mrs Aysha Al-Hashemi highlighted the following key points from the report (unless otherwise stated these points relate to the 2008-09 school year).
- Overall, a large proportion of parents (79%) expressed satisfaction with the education offered by the schools with satisfaction being at similar, but slightly lower, levels to that of previous years.
- Similarly, a substantive proportion of parents (75%) reported that they felt their child enjoyed school, whereas, by contrast, a smaller percentage of students (67%) indicated that they enjoyed school. In both situations, student enjoyment levels were substantially higher in primary schools than in preparatory schools which, in turn, were clearly higher than in secondary schools.
- Parents expressed a strong positive view about the schools’ maintenance of good discipline and order with 80% expressing satisfaction with this aspect of school.
- Student absenteeism, as reported by students themselves, continues to be high with students indicating being absent from school on about 15% of the school days.
- Only 73% of students reported feeling safe at school, with primary school students expressing higher levels of feeling safe than students in preparatory and secondary schools.
- Parents’ satisfaction with school communications is moderate, and at a similar level to last year, with 67% expressing satisfaction in this area and with parents of Independent and International school students indicating higher satisfaction rates than the parents of students in Private Arabic and Ministry of Education schools.
- Students reported a decrease in involvement in school governance with 29% (as opposed to higher proportions previously) indicating that they had voted in some matter at school during the school year. Interestingly, there was a higher level of involvement amongst primary school students than for preparatory and secondary students, and generally the level of involvement in voting was higher for International school students than for students of Independent, Private Arabic and Ministry of Education schools.
- Parental satisfaction with their involvement in school decisions was quite low (with only 36% indicating some degree of satisfaction that they have an adequate say in school decisions affecting their children); moreover, the satisfaction levels have fallen in comparison with the 2007-08 school year.
- A large proportion of the principals were satisfied with the level of autonomy that they had, with 85% indicating positive views about it; International and Private Arabic school principals expressed the highest level of satisfaction with their autonomy; and in general satisfaction levels have risen since the previous school year and are much higher than the satisfaction levels expressed in the 2004-05 school year when such data were first collected.
- A relatively low proportion of teacher (54%) feel that their opinion is valued within school decision-making; this proportion is similar to that of the previous year.
- The average amount of homework done per week (as reported by students) was 6.1 hours with primary school students and International and Private Arabic school students indicating higher average amounts than those indicated by students in other school stages and school types.
- There continues (from 2004-05 to 2008-09) to be relatively low levels of teachers with formal teaching qualifications with 68% of the teaching force reporting possession of such a qualification; Independent schools have the lowest proportions of teachers with formal teaching qualifications.
- The amount of time spent on professional development by teachers continues to increase with an average of 49.5 hours spent on professional development in the year compared to 42.5 hours, 39.1 hours, 29.8 hours and 8.3 hours reportedly spent in 2007-08, 2006-07, 2005-06, and 2004-05 respectively. As with previous years, the teachers in Independent school report by far the greatest amount of professional development time.
- A moderate proportion of principals (67%) indicated that they had undertaken professional development during the 2008-09 school year; however, almost all (ie 99%) of the Independent school principals indicated undertaking professional development in the 2008-09 school year.
