THE EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN QATAR: CHALLENGES AND SUCCESSES

Until the late 1990's, Qatar's educational system was run along intrinsic-nationalistic and cultural tradition of Arab schools. Few students were able to pursue higher degrees in Western Universities predominantly run in English as in the United Kingdom and United States. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the Qatari leadership approached RAND Corporation to examine and analyse the existing educational system and recommend options for building a new educational system. RAND assessment study concluded that the country's education system was rigid, old, lacking any standards or international benchmarks. This opened for a reform consequently, the establishment of a system of Independent Schools, new curriculum standards, teacher and leadership professional development to find the most effective systems for Qatari students to succeed along international and particularly Western benchmarks. The most recognizable change was the transformation of government schools to Independent Schools, what may be known in the United States as the Charter schools, to encourage key principles of autonomy, accountability, variety, and choice. The approach was to have the Ministry of Education metamorphose into the Supreme Education Council within it the establishment of the Education Institute and Evaluation Institute which both oversaw the implementation of the new curriculum and assessments respectively. More so, a new system and organization has changed the structure of the school system. Consequently, the number of initiatives taken shape post reform is markedly different from what was recognized in the reform. This paper gives a brief historical preface of the educational system in Qatar, discusses the reform in terms of its changes, successes and challenges and future development of the K-12 educational system.