Seventh Doha Roundtable among local Communities

29 Nov Seventh Doha Roundtable among local Communities

The Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue has organized the seventh Roundtable among communities, on Saturday 26th November 2016 in Winstin Hotel in Doha.
The 7th roundtable by DICID discussed the topic “Education of Expat Children: in Qatar, highlighting its challenges, and opportunities, as well as supports, covering all levels of education, including public and private school, special needs institutions, and universities On the opening session, Prof. Ibrahim bin Saleh al-Naimi, chairman of DICID said, that the forum is an occasion to explore the opportunities for primary education and higher education for expatriate students. It also focuses on children with special needs. The whole aim of the discussion is to look for a comprehensive education system for nationals as well as expatriates.”

From his side, Archbishop Makarios, president of the Christian Churches Steering Committee who delivered a keynote address at the forum, said that education, especially primary education is the right of a child, stressing that there are two types of education. One is the conventional method of text book and class room education and the second one is the technology driven one comprising Internet and the Social Media. Modern education should not allow the children to live in a closed world but develop and build cultural dialogue and lead to an education based on the students’ knowledge of culture and religion.

The first topic addressed the opportunities of education for Expat in Qatar, in public and private schools, special needs institutions, and Higher education.

Dr. Khalid al-Khater, vice president for administration and financial affairs at Qatar University has recommended the establishment of new private universities. He also called for providing a quota at the existing universities for expatriate students as well as starting more disciplines in universities to meet the growing demand for higher education in Qatar. He stated that these affordable universities , which will be under authority of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, so that more expatriate students can pursue higher education staying with their families.

These new institution can also start more disciplines so that more students can be accommodated enabling more expatriate students to continue their studies in the country. Moreover several diploma courses can be turned into undergraduate programs.
The second topic tackled the challenges facing the expats for their children education. The speakers discussed the high fees of foreign and private schools and the disparity of educational level in some schools, and raised the insufficient number of schools for the number of students for some communities, and finally was highlighted the limited support for learning difficulties and students with special needs in independent schools, as well as the limited proportion of admissions for Expats in Qatar University and Hamad Bin Khalifa University. A number of official representative and expert on educations has exchange their experience with the public as well as students presented in the meeting.

The third topic addressed the support afforded to the expats to educate their children, first was discussed the support for the private and international schools, to develop standards to ensure the quality of Education, then was explored the method of applying for scholarship either at Qatar University, or the request financial support at Hamad bin Khalifa University. The speakers answered to the raised questions in the matter.