Doha: Ministry of Education and Higher Education affirmed that the policy of school certificate equivalency comes within its keenness on the development and advancement of human resources, considering them a solid foundation for formulating and implementing development plans in any country.
From this perspective, the State of Qatar has attached utmost importance to providing specialized and qualified scientific cadres, whether through qualifications coming from abroad or through refining and training educational outputs from government and specialized schools within the country.
In this context, Director of the Student Information Center Administration at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Ali Al Qadhi said in an exclusive interview with Qatar News Agency that to achieve all this, the Ministry has opened avenues for the dissemination of knowledge to various international and world educational organizations and institutions to work alongside educational institutions within the country. He pointed
out that as a result of this diversity from within and outside the country, it was imperative to deal with the qualifications of educational outputs transparently and credibly, through the establishment of a clear policy for school certificate equivalency, preventing improvisation in making equivalence decisions, while ensuring that knowledge acquisition is done through real sources and legitimate means, thereby achieving efficient educational outcomes.
He explained that the concept of school certificate equivalency refers to the decision issued stating that the required school certificate is equivalent to one of the stages or grades in the State of Qatar’s K12 education system.
In cases where the school certificate equivalency is applied, he explained that this is aimed at enrolling in a higher grade than the one completed with the certificate for students coming from outside Qatar only, as well as for enrolling in university education for students holding secondary school (grade 12) from private schools t
hat do not apply the national curriculum standards, in order to facilitate employment in one of the State’s ministries or its official or semi-official institutions, where school certificate equivalency is a requirement and condition for employment, whether the individual or student concerned is a graduate of the State of Qatar’s schools, or has completed secondary education in their country, or intends to practice one of the freelance jobs that require obtaining a specific academic certificate, or wants to obtain a promotion or job grade where a specific academic certificate is required.
The Director of the Student Information Center Administration at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education revealed that they received 10,000 requests last year for school certificate equivalency from within and outside Qatar.
In his interview with QNA, Ali Al Qadhi specified the categories to which the policy of school certificate equivalency applies, namely students holding the secondary certificate issued by privat
e schools that do not adhere to national curriculum standards in the State of Qatar, students holding the secondary certificate coming from outside Qatar, as well as students coming from abroad who wish to enroll in schools within Qatar. He noted in this context that for Qatari students coming from outside the State of Qatar, the school certificate equivalency is a basic requirement for enrollment in government schools or private schools of all types, while the school certificate equivalency for non-Qatari students coming from outside Qatar is a basic requirement for enrollment in government schools and private schools that apply national curriculum standards only.
Regarding whether there are exempted categories from equivalency, he underlined that school certificate equivalency is not required for students transferring between schools within Qatar, whether transferring from private to government schools or vice versa, or for students transferring between private schools of all types regardless of the type o
r nature of the curriculum. (MORE)
Source: Qatar News Agency
