Public Schools and International Schools in Qatar

This blog was a thought that came to me after reading Neha Vora; the reading made me think about international educational systems in Qatar, how they first came about and how they affected the people.

Growing up in Qatar in the early to mid 2000s was a unique experience since the country was not what it is today. The country was going through so many changes and the ministry of education was not excluded from this process. I do not recall exactly what year this happened, but some time during the early 2000s (around 2004-2006 is my guess) the country changed the system of public schools into independent schools; this meant that schools did not have to follow one specific curriculum or schedule. This caused chaos. The educational system was now a mess with the new independent schools using various different curriculums from all around the world or even creating their own; there was more diversity in their curriculums than in Hollywood films. As a result, many Qatari parents started enrolling their kids in private schools, my parents being one of them.

These international schools, which were also the private schools, used curriculums from different parts of the world. My school adopted the British system, meaning we did our A levels (advanced levels) and IGCSE (international general certificate of secondary education), however, my school still called itself an international school. It was in the name. My school had several branches, some were “British schools” while others were “international schools”. I was in the international school. Further, I have no clue what was the difference between the international and the British school, since both of them used the British curriculum anyways. When I asked some of the students who attended these British schools what the difference was between the international and the British schools was, they did not have an. answer either. Their description of the schools and the curriculum sounded identical to ours, although they paid more to attend those schools. I was left confused since I was always told that the British branch, and British schools in general, were a lot better than both the public (then called independent) and the international schools. I questioned the people who have said this why they thought the British schools were, and they replied saying “its british!”, as if that’s supposed to mean something. I understood what they meant though, they meant that it was better because it was British. People in this country, and in the Middle East as a whole, look down on their own systems and on themselves, and look up to the West as an advanced society with great political and societal structures and systems. Many of them believe that for us to advance, we need to westernize.

This is also evident in the change in the languages of the public schools. Public schools – or independent schools whatever you want to call them – went through several changes. At first, those schools taught subjects like Maths, Sciences, History, and others, in Arabic. Later on in the late 2000s, the Ministry of Education enforced a new law on these schools that made them teach these subjects in English. This was done with the help of RAND, an American corporation, which encouraged and facilitated the change in Qatar’s educational system from Arabic to English. I am going to try and refrain from complaining about how frustrating, stupid, orientalist, and useless this whole change was and about my hatred for RAND. All you need to know is that it made things ten times worse than they already were after they changed the system from public to independent schools, since the students now had to adapt to learning in a foreign langauge.

This resulted in many people believing that English was an important language to learn, and while that may be true to an extent, why does it have to be priotized over our native langauge? The same thing goes for the British schools, why are they better than the international schools, especially if they use the same curriculum? It seems like these systems and structures created an idea in people’s heads that the closer you are to being western, the more advanced and civilised you are. You are smarter if you speak English. You are smarter if you went to a British school. Obviously, these are all lies that many people still believe. Years later, the Ministry of Education realised that schools in Qatar were a mess, and so they changed the schooling system back to public schools which taught subjects in Arabic. This obviously had its own reprecussions as people had just gotten used to the subjects in English and the independent school’s curriculums.