At the heart of education reform are autonomous government-funded Independent Schools; internationally-benchmarked curriculum standards in Arabic, English, mathematics, and science; and assessments and other evaluation tools to measure student learning and school performance. Education for a New Era is built on four principles:
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Autonomy: Allowing schools and teachers to be innovative in their approach to meeting the needs of individual students and parents within the framework of the curriculum standards. Today, more than 100 independent schools offer new models for curriculum design, teaching methods, and collaboration. By 2010, all public schools in Qatar will be independent schools.
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Accountability: Implementing an objective and transparent assessment system to hold all school leaders, teachers and parents responsible for the success of students. The Qatar Comprehensive Evaluation Assessment (QCEA) is administered annually to students in every independent school and all schools are reviewed every three years.
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Variety: Encouraging different kinds of schools and instructional programs.
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Choice: Allowing parents to select the school that best fits their child’s needs and seeking their input on important schools decisions. To further encourage choice, a voucher program was instituted in 2008, offering vouchers to parents to use in a select group of private schools that meet rigorous criteria for quality.
Within this framework, the State decided on a two-pronged approach to reform:
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The establishment of government-funded Independent Schools over a multi-year period.
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The implementation of annual assessments to measure student learning and school performance.
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