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Overview of education in Qatar

The education system in Qatar is jointly directed and controlled by the Supreme Education Council (SEC) and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) at all levels. The SEC is responsible for overseeing independent schools, whereas the MOE is responsible for providing support to private schools. There are approximately 338 international schools in the country.

In 2001, Qatar hired the RAND Corporation to analyse and reform its K–12 education system due to uncertainties over the quality of the pre existent system. At the time RAND's study was conducted, over 100,000 students were served by the Qatari education system; two thirds of whom attended government operated schools. In 2005, the SEC raised curriculum standards in Arabic, mathematics, and sciences for all grades. A large number of independent schools were also opened shortly after. Twelve independent schools opened in 2004, twenty one in 2005 and thirteen in 2006. A 2015 study conducted by the OECD ranked Qatar in the bottom 10 of its educational index. Education was an integral part of the Qatar National Development Strategy 2011–2016. Furthermore, the Qatar National Vision 2030 sets a number of objectives for the country's education system. Qatar's government is promoting education so that it can solidify its national identity, promote morals and social values within its population, and diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons. Rather, Quranic education was highly valued in urban society, and to a lesser extent, rural society. Most children living in urban settlements were taught how to memorize, understand and read the Quran. This type of education was typically completed by the age of 10, whereupon the child's family would celebrate al khatma, or the end of memorizing the Quran. Kuttabs, which were also known as mutta or muttawa, were split into two sub sections. The first type of kuttab taught only the Quran and basic religious principles and were very wide spread in both rural and urban areas. The other variation of kuttab taught reading, writing and arithmetic in addition to the Quran. They were found only in large urban settlements, such as Doha, and were attended by children of wealthy families. There were several limitations on kuttabs, many of stemmed from the lack of qualifications of the instructors who staffed them. Madrasas were advanced educational institutes which taught Islamic sciences and Arabic literature. They were located primarily in urban settlements. The country's most reputable madrasa in the early 20th century, Al Madrasa al Sheikh Muhammad Abdulaziz Al Ma'na, was established in 1918 by a Bahraini sheikh. Its staff was composed of many highly educated instructors. The syllabus had an emphasis on Arabic literature and the Arabic language. There was no fixed number of years for a student to graduate. It was closed in 1938.

In 1949, the country's first formal school was established in Doha by the emir of Qatar under the name Islah al Mohammadiyeh. It was staffed by one teacher and had 50 students. The syllabus encompassed a broad range of topics, including religious education, geography, English, arithmetic and grammar. It imported its textbooks from Egypt. The city's second school was established in 1954. The first formal girls' school opened its doors in the 1950s in Doha and the first female teacher and Principal was Amina Mahmoud Al Jaidah. In 1956, the Ministry of Education was founded, marking the beginning of several educational initiatives on a national scale. Seventeen primary schools were established that year, and accommodated 1,333 students and 80 teachers. In 1957, girls' schools were integrated into the national educational programme. That year, two girls' schools accommodating 451 students and 14 female teachers were formed. Girls' education grew at a rapid rate over the following years, until 1975–76 when the number of girls' schools equaled the number of boys' schools at 65 each. The development of the school system witnessed the establishment of nine schools in rural villages in 1957. The villages included Umm Salal, Simaisma, Abu Dhalouf, Al Ghariyah, and Al Khuwayr. There were approximately 369 students and 14 teachers in village schools that year. The government invested heavily in rural schools into the 1960s. By 1965, there was a total of 54 schools in villages, with 37 being exclusive to boys and 17 being exclusive to girls. This was partly a result of Qatari tribes exerting pressure on the government to establish schools in their villages in order to avoid the need for their children to attend schools in neighboring villages. However, this initiative was halted as a result of large scale domestic emigration to Doha in the following years. In the 1970s, the government initiated a policy of re locating village inhabitants to larger nearby settlements where they then established co educational primary and secondary schools. There were four major school administrative zones by the early 1990s: Al Shamal (north Qatar), Doha, Al Khor (north east Qatar), and Dukhan (west Qatar).

Control of education is currently shared between the Ministry of Education and the Supreme Education council. Funding to the Ministry of Education has been reduced and many schools have been transferred to the Supreme Education Council.

Supreme Education Council (SEC) was created by decree number 37 in the year 2002. The Education Institute, which directly oversees and semi independent schools and develops curriculum standards. The Evaluation Institute, which conducts national assessments of student learning of independent K–12 schools and is responsible for licensing teachers. The Higher Education Institute, which assists students in applying for colleges.

The first university established in the country was Qatar University, founded as a teachers' college in 1973. It currently has eight colleges, including Education, Business and Economics, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Sharia, Pharmacy, Law, and Medicine. Several universities from other countries have opened satellite campuses in the country. For example, some American universities have campuses at Education City. These include Cornell University, Weill Medical College, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Northwestern University in Qatar and Texas A&M University. Universities from Canada include College of the North Atlantic Qatar and the University of Calgary Qatar. HEC Paris in Qatar was the first European partner to join Education City. University College London was the first British university to have opened a campus in Qatar although the campus closed in 2020. A second British university, the University of Aberdeen opened a branch in Doha in 2017. On top of that, Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies is the graduate school and international center of excellence in Islamic Studies that is under the umbrella of Hamad Bin Khalifa University and attached to Qatar Foundation.

The Qatari government has taken a unique approach to education through AL Bairaq, an outreach program targeting high school students which focuses on a curriculum that is based on STEM fields. The idea behind AL Bairaq is to offer high school students the opportunity to connect with the research environment in the Center for Advanced Materials (CAM) at Qatar University. In 2009, the government launched the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), a global forum that brings together education stakeholders, opinion leaders and decision makers from all over the world to discuss educational issues. The first edition was held in Doha in November 2009. WISE has been involved in fundraising efforts for Haiti in an attempt to help rebuild the country's education system which suffered as a result of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Additionally, WISE has created a Nobel equivalent prize for education, with a $500,000 award for its recipient.