Adviser to the Minister of Education and Higher Education, Mohamad Ahmad Al Bashri, has said that the academic year of government schools will end on its scheduled time on June 21, 2020.
“The distance learning of students from grade 1 to 11 will conclude on May 7, 2020. The communication between students of grade 12 and teachers through online platforms will continue until the end the final examinations of senior secondary school,” said Mohamad Ahmad Al Bashri, while talking to Qatar TV.
Regarding academic year of private schools, he said that the Ministry sent a circular to private schools officially that private school can reduce or end the academic year on a condition that the it should not affect the approved study hours.
“The distance learning system is running smoothly for the students from grade 1 to 12. The users of distance learning system reached 128,799 students and teachers.
"Over a million text messages were exchanged between teachers and students. Over 13,500 direct calls between students and teachers were recorded and 100 percent calls were responded,” said Al Bashri.
He said that as much as 1,212 home works were produced on daily bases till April 13, 2020 report. “The weekly evaluation papers reached 422 per week. The 1,547 audiovisual lessons were produced till April 16,” he added. He said that there are 19 educational channels on YouTube with total subscribers of 97,000 apart from those utilising from the two TV channels for distance learning thanks to the Qatar Media Corporation (QMD) for offering this service.
“The Ministry has made a number of plans to cope with the situation if preventive measures which is in place, stretch to the next academic year,” said Al Bashri.
“We will continue the distance learning with more readiness. Thanks to the employees of the Ministry and school staffs who did their best to overcome the impact of coronavirus on educational process of the country.”
Regarding the admission, he said that the admission tests of the students will be conducted remotely as per the preventive measures of the Ministry.
He said that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education receives complaints from parents on WhatsApp number 60020020, call center number 155, and has responded to all calls.
He said that the conditions of admission in private schools and kindergartens are unchanged.
“The schools should not keep the students on-wait for over one week for registration from the date of application and should inform the parents about enrollment of the students within a week,” said Al Bashri.
He said that the ministry has launched a contest for students ‘school stars’ which will continue in coming years to engage them for useful things.
“The students will compete in making a short film from 30 seconds to one minute on awareness, documentary and among many more topics. The winners will get attractive prizes like QR10,000 as first prize, QR7,500 as second prize and QR5,000 as third prize . The contest will be for students of government and private schools in many languages,” said Al Bashri.
SOURCE: THEPENINSULAQATAR