JUNE 2006 HOT TOPIC

Improving the Qatari Education System

Qatar—a small, natural resource–rich country in the Persian Gulf—has embarked on an ambitious, comprehensive effort to upgrade its educational institutions. The Education City campus in Doha, Qatar, now hosts branch campuses of renowned American universities, including Virginia Commonwealth, Cornell, Texas A&M, Georgetown, and Carnegie Mellon. But the leadership of Qatar, like that of other countries, is concerned that the elementary and secondary school system is not preparing students to meet the demands of world-class higher education institutions and the 21st-century labor force.

In 2001, the Emir of Qatar asked RAND to objectively assess the existing education system. The RAND team and its Qatari partners identified a number of factors underlying poor system performance. Chief among these was the absence of educational standards. Without standards, the system could not hold educators accountable for performance or offer incentives for improvement.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) adopted a policy of top-down control of curriculum, resources, and all aspects of the system. The MoE provided all textbooks and a curriculum guide, which was used daily by teachers to record details of each lesson taught. MoE inspectors reviewed this record to ensure compliance with the national curriculum. The curriculum emphasized rote learning and memorization, discouraged creativity, and did not challenge students to think critically.

Based on the assessment, the team concluded that systemic change was needed to achieve meaningful improvements. In 2002, the Emir announced a sweeping plan based on (1) new government-funded schools to be operated privately rather than by the MoE and (2) national standardized student tests aligned with internationally benchmarked curriculum standards. The reform proposal included the development of many types of schools and an information system about school performance to facilitate parental choice and involvement.

Implementation began in Fall 2002, and since that time, the new reform plan has made substantial progress but also has encountered some challenges.

A significant early step was the development of new curriculum standards for Qatar in Arabic, English, mathematics, and science. The standards-development process examined international practices and provided a forum for discussions among educators and community members about schooling in Qatar that helped set high expectations for students' learning. The standards emphasize sophisticated yet practical skills, such as critical reasoning and use of information, rather than merely memorization and recitation as in the traditional curriculum. As a result, Qatar now has a set of K–12 curriculum standards benchmarked against the best standards in the world.

Based on these standards, Qatar developed and administered national standardized tests in Arabic in the four subjects listed above. The tests are complemented by a broad system of data collection, analysis, and reporting that is a unique model for other education reform plans throughout the world. The system includes surveys administered to every principal, teacher, social worker, student, and parent in the government schools and in many private schools teaching in Arabic. On these surveys, parents and students responded enthusiastically, expressing their views about education in Qatar, reporting aspects that satisfied them, and identifying areas for improvement. Information from the tests and surveys will enable teachers and schools to implement process improvements and will enable parents to choose schools that meet their children's needs.

There have also been some significant challenges. The reform requires building important new institutions, yet because Qatar is small, there is limited local capacity to staff these new institutions. In addition, the reform calls for a new organizational culture of decentralized responsibility coupled with accountability for results. Consequently, the institutions must absorb foreign expertise. For Qataris and their foreign partners to work together productively, they have had to overcome differences in work styles stemming from their individual backgrounds and cultures. But even with the challenges, the reform has accomplished a remarkable amount in a short time.

The success of the reform in the long term will depend on the supply of new, high-quality schools. Progress so far includes the creation of 31 new Independent Schools implementing the world-class curriculum standards. These schools have drawn strong parental interest and there are plans to open more in the future.

Qatar is also upgrading its higher education system, starting with the foreign branch campuses of the universities listed in the opening paragraph above. In addition, with RAND's help, Qatar University is redefining its mission and structure to better serve the nation's needs and is starting a new teacher training college in partnership with Texas A&M. The nation is now implementing a new scholarship system, developed through RAND analysis, to motivate qualified students to study abroad at the finest institutions in the world.

READ THE WORKING PAPER: An Introduction to Qatar's Primary and Secondary Education Reform

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