Katar steht bei der Reform des Bildungssektors vor Herausforderungen, wie viele andere Länder auch. Es gibt viele positive Entwicklungen. Dem Land fehlt es aber an einer Kultur der "harten Arbeit" und des "umfassendes Lernens" sowie an Respekt für alle Berufe.
Qatar: Mapping education milestones
Like every developing country, Qatar too has its challenges in charting out
educational reform. While there have been many positive outcomes, what the
country clearly lacks is a culture of hard work and deep learning, and a respect
for all professions; values that need to be instilled for education to
flourish.
As parents, we have harrowing tales to recount of finding the
best educational institution for our children. The issue compounds in countries
like Qatar where there is a growing and a moving population and a wide range of
private schools to choose from. After you have researched and found the
educational curriculum that best suits your child, you realise that the school
has already closed its admission process with its quota of student enrolment
achieved. And then the process of matching the curriculum to your child's
temperament starts again.
The existing schools are all said to be
filled to the limits set by the educational authorities but there are more
schools in the pipeline that might reduce the gap in supply. Is there a
demand-supply mismatch? How can the country compare its educational offering to
what's out there?
"Although the number of schools has expanded from a
total of 230 in 2005 to more than 350 in 2015, overall, the education sector has
been struggling to keep pace with the rate of population growth. It is largely
accepted that during the past few years, the demand for schools has far exceeded
the supply." - Saumya Krishna, Senior Manager, Financial Advisory Services
Deloitte & Touche
Going through the pages of history
At the behest of the Supreme Education Council (SEC), the RAND Corporation in
2001 undertook a broad-based examination of the nation's kindergarten through
grade 12 (K-12) education system to propose a strategy for reform. RAND's
analysis identified key system strengths and weaknesses, most of which were
already known, and it suggested a system-changing reform. Since then the
improvements have been immense.
The RAND reform happened more than a
decade and half ago, but where do we stand now? How has the country improved its
educational offering? What are the methods by which you can quantify the efforts
taken? These are some of the questions that Qatar Today tries to answer.
Global standards
The importance of education to the economics of the country is reiterated by
one of the world's most influential figures in education, Andreas Schleicher,
Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD), says, "Your education today is your economy tomorrow. We
can only grow ourselves out of bad economic conditions and, in the long run,
that depends more than anything on equipping more people with better skills to
collaborate, compete and connect in ways that drive our societies forward - and
on using those skills productively. Ensuring that all people have a solid
foundation of knowledge and skills must therefore be the central aim of the
post-2015 education agenda."
But how does one quantify the educational
standards of a country? Over the past decade, the OECD Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA) has become the world's premier yardstick
for evaluating the quality, equity and efficiency of school systems in providing
young people with these skills. But the evidence base that PISA has produced
goes well beyond statistical benchmarking.
By identifying the
characteristics of high-performing education systems, PISA allows governments
and educators to identify effective policies that they can then adapt to their
local contexts.
In 2012, when the last PISA was carried out, the top
places in the rankings were dominated by Asian school systems - although China
so far does not participate as a whole country, but is represented by
high-performing cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong. Qatar's performance is
among the lowest of all the countries, just above Indonesia and Peru.
Finland has always been one of the top performers in the PISA ranking but in
recent years has fallen behind in its ranking, mostly due to the high
performance of the Asian countries.
Now with these results in hand, what
have the countries done to score up? Developed countries are said to have
doubled or tripled spending on schools since around 1970, to little effect.
America spends twice as much as Poland, yet both countries' 15-year-olds get
similar results on PISA. South Africa spends more than Kenya but does more
poorly.
Qatar will spend close to Qatari Riyal QR20.4 billion in this
fiscal year and the budget contains funding for the construction of 18 new
schools and six kindergartens in 2016.
We first asked the SEC which is
now the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE), for its view on the
challenges that the education sector faces and a spokesperson answered:
"Qatar usually takes leading positions in the Arab education indicators of
quality, gender equality and educational process efficiency. However, the most
outstanding challenge facing the educational system in Qatar is the modest
performance of the Qatari students in the international unified examinations
despite the country's big spending on educational requirements and high
teacher-to-student ratio compared to other countries. Other major challenges
include low enrolment in universities, deficient number and quality of field
researches like those conducted in advanced international systems on various
aspects of educational services, lack of consideration of the recommendations
and findings of such researches, and the disinclination of students to join
scientific courses."
Now when the challenges are identified by the
educational policymakers themselves, there is relief in the fact that there is
an acknowledgement of the factors that deter growth results in education. The
country's situation can only improve.
According to the MOEHE, Qatar is
among the countries that spend generously on education. "It has developed the
required strategies to meet the standards of international competitiveness,
especially with the achievements made in the field of modern buildings with
their advanced educational services alongside high quality internet networks
covering all schools throughout the country. Work is continuing to upgrade the
quality to international standards."
"I believe that the reason for so
much interest in sharing ideas with our Qatari colleagues is not only to learn
best practices or 'import' them to Qatar but also to bring about a very positive
change in the mindset of people that learning is not about memorising. I think
this is what we are starting to see in the PISA results of Qatari students." -
Seppo Keränen, Program Director, Future Learning Finland
The Qatar Scenario
According to an extensive, in-depth report on the educational scenario in the
country by Deloitte experts Saumya Krishna, Senior Manager at Deloitte &
Touche's Financial Advisory Services, and Richard Barret, Director of Deloitte
& Touche Middle East's Education and Skills Consulting, while Qatar's
economy has expanded rapidly between 2004 and 2011, registering an average real
gross domestic product (GDP) growth of approximately 16 per cent per annum
(p.a.) and a real economic growth of 5 to 6 per cent on an annual
basis (from 2011), the education sector has been struggling to keep pace with
the rate of population growth.
"Between the period 2005 and 2010, the
country's population grew at a rate of 15.24 per cent p.a., from c. 0.9
million to 1.76 million, reaching a total of 2.3 million as per the latest
figures released by Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) in Oct 2015. Although the
number of schools has expanded from a total of 230 in 2005 to more than 350 in
2015, overall, the education sector has been struggling to keep pace with the
rate of population growth. It is largely accepted that during the past few
years, the demand for schools has far exceeded the supply," says
Krishna.
"In the academic year 2014/2015, there were 243,000 students in
Qatar of which 105,636 attended independent schools and the remaining 137,364
attended private schools. Technavio, a leading technology research and advisory
company, forecasts that the number of students will cross 300,000 by 2019
(compounded annual growth rate of 5.4 per cent)," she says.
An existing
supply gap and an expected sustained growth in economic activity (forecast at an
average annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent between 2015 and 2019, source:
EIU -Economist Intelligence Unit) have created factors that support a strong
demand for schools and quality education in Qatar.
The country has
already seen the measures that are in force to fill the gap.
According
to the Deloitte team, Qatar's 2014-2015 state budget has included funding to
construct 85 new schools. Ashghal has announced that it is currently overseeing
education-related construction projects worth approximately QR3 billion to boost
the country's educational infrastructure. Of this, work is already under way on
38 schools and kindergartens (KG) for an estimated QR1.73 billion. It is
estimated that 33 new schools and KGs were completed and turned over to the
MOEHE for the upcoming academic year 2015-2016. Of the balance, Ashghal has
already awarded contracts worth more than QR1.25 billion for the construction of
17 new schools and six KGs.
As per data available, in 2015 the Ministry
of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) granted initial approval to 75 new
private schools and kindergartens (an implied increase of 31 per cent). The
MOEHE also intends to increase the independent schools by more than 33 per
cent by 2017. Combined, this is likely to boost the country's education
infrastructure, according to the MOEHE.
"The school needs a national
core curriculum giving the basic values and content but also space to localise
it at the municipality, school and teacher levels. Principals and teachers would
feel that they can influence the process if they are part of the change." -
Maarit Rossi, CEO and Founder, Paths to Math
The number of student
enrolments in private international schools has increased at a rate of 24 per
cent (compounded, average annual) between 2006 and 2015. "During this period the
enrolment at private Arabic schools has been declining; while that at
independent schools has been growing at a much lower CAGR of 4 per cent. The
higher demand for private schools is explained in many ways.
The key
driver is the increasing expatriate population and their preference for an
internationally accredited curriculum, increasing popularity of the voucher
programme amongst Qatari families which allows Qatari students to join select
private schools with state support, and the general public perception that
private international schools tend to have higher-quality education. As per a
Strategy& (formerly Booz&Co) report, most of the private schools in
Qatar outperformed most independent schools on the 2009 PISA Exam," says
Barret.
When the MOEHE was asked to comment on this phenomenon of the
popularity of private schools, they replied that private schools help intensify
competition to improve the educational services extended to learners in all
public and private schools. "The state subsidises school fees for the benefit of
Qatari students at private schools through educational vouchers to provide equal
opportunities for learners and parents to choose the schools that can meet their
standards," they say.
However, according to the MOEHE, an increasing
influx of Qatari students from private schools to public schools has been noted.
"This phenomenon is attributed to the huge development of education services at
public schools in terms of applying diverse educational programmes that enhance
Arabic language education, scientific thinking and reasoning skills and an
environment conducive to ingraining the lofty Islamic and national values and
traditions in the students."
While this phenomenon is not reflected in
the study by Deloitte, there is proof of the fact that the standards of the
public schools are being studied and monitored.
Key PISA findings
Italy, Poland, Qatar, Estonia, Israel and Singapore increased their shares of
top performers and simultaneously reduced their shares of low performers in
science in a span of 3-6 years.
In Finland, early detection mechanisms,
such as periodic individualised assessments of students by several groups of
teachers, allow educators to identify struggling students and offer them the
necessary support early on, before they become stuck and cannot continue their
education at the same pace as their peers.
Israel and Germany have
designed programmes that offer more learning opportunities to immigrant and
minority students by providing a longer school day (Germany) or by encouraging
students to participate in smaller study groups (Israel).
The MOEHE has
already charted the way forward in its bid to increase standards.
"We
are currently planning to implement the initiative of revising and refining the
national curriculum of Qatar whose general framework was commissioned in January
2016 as a first step in the revision and refining effort. The general framework
of the national curriculum will help provide high-quality education and
educational outcomes through more concentration on the competencies that the
students need to be able to successfully respond to and deal with the
opportunities and challenges of the 21st century."
Due to the importance
of competencies like creative and critical thinking, number efficiency,
communication, investigation and research in life situations and in enhancing
the educational process, they were endorsed as basic contents in the updated
national educational curriculum in Qatar, says the MOEHE.
As these
competencies are essential in achieving the ambitions of Qatar National Vision
2030, the ministry is seeking to include them in all the aspects of the
educational process as an integral part of educational planning and all
educational materials at all school stages.
Thus the Qatari educational
curriculum will be revised and refined according to the basics prescribed by the
general framework of the national curriculum, foremost the educational
competencies.
The following stage of the initiative will be an
experimental application and it will start after preparing the teachers and
educational leaders to implement this curriculum.
Refining the
educational curriculum and preparing the cadres that are going to apply it and
follow up and evaluate its implementation and amendment will be a serious start
of transforming the educational system based on competencies, says the
MOEHI.
Responding to the PISA results of schools in Qatar, Birla Public
School spokesperson Rakesh Verma commented that government policies have been on
the job to include changing curricula or instructional systems and/or improving
the quality of the teaching staff, for example, by requiring more qualifications
to earn a teaching licence, providing incentives for high-achieving students to
enter the profession, increasing salaries to make the profession more attractive
and to retain more teachers, and/or offering incentives for teachers to engage
in in-service teacher-training programmes.
While there seems to be
efforts from the ministry, the PISA scores definitely tell us of a need to look
beyond these measures to improve learning aspects.
Correlation between engagement in school and PISA results
PISA reveals that in most countries and economies, far too many students do
not make the most of the learning opportunities available to them because they
are not engaged with schools. Attendance at and engagement with school do not
just vary among students and schools, but also across countries.
In
particular, the high-performing East Asian countries and economies, such as Hong
Kong-China, Japan, Korea, Macao-China and Shanghai-China, have relatively small
proportions of students who reported that they had arrived late for class or
skipped a class or a day of school. The extent to which the educational
aspirations of students and parents are the result of cultural values or
determinants of these, and how such aspirations interact with education policies
and practices is an important subject that merits further study.
Whatever the case, it seems that if a country seeks better education
performance, it is incumbent on political and social leaders to persuade the
country's citizens to make the choices needed to show that they value
education.
Learning from best practices
Maarit Rossi, the CEO and Founder of Paths to Math, a company focused on
researching and developing modern educational content, is passionate about
creating advanced learning solutions for schools and individuals. She was also
recently named one of the Top 10 finalists for the Global Teacher Prize 2016 and
she talks to us about the essentials of a well-moulded school system.
"I
think there are four essential factors: the role of the National Core
Curriculum, the vision and values of the school, highly professional teachers
and networking to spread the word of the achievements," says Rossi.
She
expands on the four factors. "The school needs a national core curriculum giving
the basic values and content but also space to localise it at the municipality,
school and teacher levels. Principals and teachers feel that they could
influence the process if they are part of the change. We implemented the
curriculum across all these levels so that everybody was committed to work for
it."
According to Rossi, keeping the national curriculum as a foundation
for what the citizens want from the country, the school should strive to recruit
highly professional teachers who have enough freedom to implement the core
curriculum. Teachers have to be willing to get additional training so that they
are able to adapt and apply to the curriculum the possible changes in the
society and world, and prepare children to be global citizens during these times
when humanity faces challenges like radicalism and terrorism, poverty and youth
unemployment.
Seppo Keränen, Program Director for Future Learning
Finland, stresses that one of the most important contributing factors to the
success of Finland in PISA testing is the professionalism and knowledge of their
teachers.
"I would like to particularly stress the pedagogical
knowledge, not just the knowledge of the subject. All our teachers need to have
Master's degrees, and they enjoy professional freedom and trust. In teaching
STEM subjects in particular we take a very pragmatic approach and concentrate on
showing children how their studies relate to the real world and how their skills
can be applied in real life. There is enormous interest from around the world
towards teacher education in Finland."
He says that there has been a lot
of interest to share ideas and best practices with Qatari colleagues.
"I
believe that the reason for such interest is not only to learn best practices
and to 'import' them to Qatar but also a very positive change in the mindset of
people that learning is not about memorising. I think this is what we start
seeing in the PISA results of Qatari students. Change is a long and slow
process; it took Finland many years to get to the position it is now. I believe,
given the present willingness of the educators in Qatar to bring changes, the
educational system here is on track for change for the better."
"The
idea of hard work and studying to achieve something is foremost in the process
of education, that ís when there is proper learning. If the child is left alone
with his challenges then he or she tends to give up sooner or later and the
ultimate aim of education is lost. Educating your child is a joint venture
between the child, the teachers, the school and the parents." - Juha Repo,
Principal, Qatar Finland International School
The Finnish model in Doha
To know more about the celebrated Finnish model, we drive to Qatar Finland
International School (QFIS) to meet the principal, Juha Repo. QFIS was
established in 2014 and in its second year it already caters to 330 students
from Grade 1 to Grade 6 with expansion plans for the coming year that will
include more students and offer the first grade of middle school starting in Sep
2016. Repo has been in the educational sector in the region for over six years
and has a fair knowledge of the two models, regional and Finnish, to compare and
take notes. He is optimistic about the possibilities that exist in the
country.
"Finland was considered an under-developed country after the
Second World War; it was in the 1990s that we started making a success of our
educational system," he says. Propagating the educational success from a country
that took almost 40 years to build its system, Repo is not unduly worried about
where Qatar stands now. "Qatar is a young country and the possibilities are
endless," he says.
According to Repo, Qatar has the will and the
resources, both of which are vital to establish education system. But for a
system to work there has to be a systematic approach to education - a culture of
learning needs to be imbibed.
"The school itself cannot perform miracles
if other areas of the society do not support the process. You have to think of
the whole community and support for education must come from everywhere. That is
the challenge that the country faces," says Repo.
While the Finnish
education system promotes the joy of learning, Repo says that the process of
learning is not always as joyful or simple as it sounds. "A fundamental level of
learning is achieved only through hard work and sometimes it might not be as
joyful as it sounds," he says.
"Many families have the culture of
learning. The idea of hard work and studying to achieve something is foremost in
the process of education, that's when there is proper learning. If the child is
left alone with his challenges then he or she tends to give up sooner or later
and the ultimate aim of education is lost.
Educating your child is a joint
venture between the child, the teachers, the school and the parents."
Going back to the Finnish process, Repo says that the country looks into every
child's capability and provides options for every student in the country, even
for those who might not be technically inclined, through its Technical
and Vocational Education and Training, or TVET.
"Finland has
successfully scaled this challenge by providing the best education in technical
skills. More than half of the student populations do not go in for higher
education, instead they join the technical education programmes, some of which
are more popular than the regular colleges. This makes sure that even those
students who are not academically inclined are not left out of the system and
focuses on their interests through more hands-on jobs, like fixing computers,
building houses and working in hospitals," says Repo. TVET has provided a means
for the country to tackle youth unemployment too.
While a negative
social bias has often prevented young people, in both developing and developed
countries, from enrolling in vocational track programmes, Finland's reforms over
the past decade have made TVET popular, contributing to lower youth unemployment
rates. Over 50% of Finnish youth apply for the TVET programmes which are more
competitive than general education.
Comparing the Finland model in Qatar
might be unsuccessful as Qatar has left its labour challenge to be addressed by
a workforce brought in from other countries, which can only be seen as an
unsustainable approach. "In the long run, students need to take responsibility
for all the jobs that arise in the country," he says.
"Government
policies have brought about several improvements like changing curricula or
instructional systems, improving the quality of the teaching staff, providing
incentives for high-achieving students to enter the teaching profession,
increasing salaries to make the profession more attractive and to retain more
teachers and offering incentives for teachers to engage in in-service
teacher-training programmes." - Rakesh Verma, Spokesperson, Birla Public
School
There are a few technical educational colleges like College of
the North Atlantic - Qatar and the new technical colleges in Qatar that offer an
education that can be customised to industry and to students and efforts being
made to make their programmes more popular to students.
One of the
strategic decisions in Finland was to make the education system equal, with
public schools available for all. "We do not have any private schools in Finland
at all. We wanted to make it equal. No matter where you go in Finland the
quality of education would always be the same. So you do not have to fish for
good schools for your children as each option is the best one."
Another
strategic reform was the teacher training programme, where all Finnish teachers
were trained for master levels. "The teaching profession, historically, is
highly regarded in the country," says Repo.
"The top 10 per cent of
high school graduates would apply for the teaching profession. The reason why
people chose this career is because it is very independent; the teacher is the
king or the queen of her class and there is no supervision, because it is the
trust based on the teaching system which has trained someone for over four
years, so well."
It is these reforms that make the Finnish model one of
the best in the world for its inclusive nature, keeping in mind the simple
theory that each child of the country is an important facet for the system to
work.
The MOEHE looks into the quality of all the private schools within
the country through its well-established accreditation system while, for the
public school sectors, the best way forward is to address the teacher training
process, according to Repo.
"Qatar, through the arm of Qatar University,
is also in the process of signing an MOU with the University of Jyväskylä for
research initiatives and to train the local teachers," he says.
One of
the reasons why the QFIS was invited here was so that they could use their
expertise to tailor a new learning tool within this cultural fabric.
"We
were asked by the Ministry to use some of the methods that we have been using in
our home country and then see how they can be implanted in this context. This
can then be reported to the Ministry and then we have also begun to support the
Ministry through teacher training programmes."
The country has put all
its efforts in building the educational system from where it was. The rest is in
the hands of its people; it is for the citizens to work cohesively with their
children and inculcate in them a habit for hard work and learning.