The QSSC exams an honest and objective indictor of student performance

HE Mr. Saad Bin Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, Minister of Education and Higher Education and the Secretary General of the Supreme Education Council (SEC) affirmed that the most important objective of the education system in Qatar is improvement of educational outcomes and qualifying high school graduates to either join the labor market or pursue higher education opportunities.

HE the Minister observed that despite the newness of the system, the SEC took gradual steps in implementation, marking full execution this year when the final batch of public schools was transformed to semi-independent. The SEC was keen to maintain a highly credible system that aligns with the requirements of the state of providing qualified and highly efficient citizens eligible to proceed either with higher education or the labor market.

This came in a statement made by his Excellency to representatives of the press during a tour to inspect the workflow at the scoring committee premises for secondary schools certificate for semi-independent schools on Monday July 5, 2010. He was received by Ms. Sabah Al Haidoos, Director of Education Institute, Mr. Adel Sayed, Director of the Evaluation Institute, Dr. Hamda Al Sulaiti, Assistant Director of the Evaluation Institute and Mr. Fahd Al Naama, QSSC Unit Director and head of the Control Unit.

HE the Minister added that the Qatar Secondary School Certificate for independent schools this year revealed a number of positive features compared with previous years, particularly with regard to the high rate of success in all subjects, ranging from 78% in physics and 100% in Arabic language (foundation levels), and between 81% in mathematics to 98% in Arabic language at the advanced level, which underlines the students adaptability to the new system

His Excellency commended efforts made by the schools this year to achieve these good results at both the foundation and advanced levels, expressing his appreciation to all the sincere efforts made by all parties to the educational process, and also congratulated all the successful students and wished them success in the next phase of their lives.

He added that the exam system and all the associated processes are subject to strict conditions and regulation and close monitoring by experts. The issuance of results follows the same standards and therefore the exams represent an honest indicator for student performance. The percentage of failure was between 0 % in social studies & Arabic language (foundation levels) and the highest failure level at 22% in physics (foundation level). Failure in other subjects ranged between 9, 12, 14, and 17 per cent, which clearly indicates that the majority of the students understood clearly the regulations of the exams and proves that the efforts of SEC to raise their awareness were fruitful.

He then said that although this is the first year to introduce the advanced level, the performance and achievements were very high and promising particularly in the scientific subjects, which reveals the ability of our students to acquire higher levels of skill and knowledge.
His Excellency the Minister reaffirmed SEC’s efforts to urge universities to increase students’ chances of acceptance and as a result emphasis was placed on the results achieved in each subject rather than the overall percentage.

He also pointed out that he issued directives to all schools to start effective July 6, 2010 to provide tuition in all subjects for students who will be sitting for the second round of exams. He expressed confidence that the students will pass especially that the vast majority has only one subject to retake.