By Umer Nangiana
With an infrastructure that fulfils the educational demands of the times, including academics, Islamic learning and Qur’an, besides soft skills and technology, the Next Generation School (TNG) Doha is fast emerging as a topnotch institution in Qatar. Offering modern facilities such as interactive boards, automated time attendance, ergonomic furniture, students-parents web portal and PC access for everyone, the TNG recently opened two more branches in Wukair and Mesaieed to meet the ever increasing demand of admissions.
TNG Kindergarten is an integrated and elementary part of The Next Generation Pakistani School. Besides the Islamic curriculum, the school’s specialty has been carefully chosen academic system of South Africa. Community spoke to the school principal, Qudsia Asad, about the recent expansion activity.
How and when did you start with the idea of TNG?
Our school started in 2009 with a small set up of kindergarten. It was only kindergarten when we started and later on we went for primary and now we have moved on to secondary within less than five years.
Now, we have a branch of kindergarten in Wukair, another kindergarten in Nuaija area and the senior school is in Ain Khalid. We have around 465 students altogether and a dedicated staff of 40 teachers and support staff.
Why did you decide to expand the school into more branches?
We were short of space here. In Nuaija campus, at the pace that we were getting admissions, we required another branch, especially kindergarten. We were short of space and that is why opted for new branches.
The location of Wukair was selected because most students are coming from Wakrah or Mesaieed sides so there was a demand over there. It is a purpose-built kindergarten building. We have plans to have our own school building in near future, putting all campuses together in one building.
We plan to increase our levels every year. Next year we will have grade 9 and then will move on to 10 and onwards to O and A levels finally.
What curriculum do you follow at your school?
We follow the British curriculum and now our affiliation is in process with Cambridge. In my opinion, Cambridge is the oldest curriculum and it is being followed in Pakistan as well where most of the schools are teaching it. We found it good for our school as well.
There is not much of a difference between the British curricula overall. It is only that we feel Cambridge has more authenticity.
What teaching methods do you employ at your school?
We have electronic teaching methods employed in our classrooms alongside the old traditional method. Children work on notebooks as well. Most of the teachers are trained to give them electronic teaching. We have smart and interactive boards in our classrooms.
We are working on it to further improve the methods day in and day out. We are always looking for advanced technologies and to employ them in our teaching methods.
Do children get homework?
Children do get homework and I believe it is very important as reinforcement is essential. We usually give the reinforcements. It is being taken care of as we do not give a lot of homework in a day. There is a time table as well for the homework. It regulates that no two homework will go together of core subjects especially English, Maths and Science. We avoid giving these three subjects together because they are the major subjects that we are following.
Do you face any behavioural problems from students?
Not much. Just once we had a problem and we expelled the child from the school because we do not want such students in our school at all.
What nationalities do you have at your school?
Mostly Pakistanis but we have different nationalities because we are an international school. We have Arabs, Sri Lankans, Filipinos, Indians and some American and British students as well. Majority is, however, Pakistani.
How is TNG different from other schools in general?
I think what we are providing is different from others. All the schools are following British curriculum but with that we are also providing our students education in Islamic studies and Qur’an. I think no other school would be giving it that much importance as we are putting emphasis on it. And I think a lot of Indian students have come to us for particularly this reason.
What extracurricular activities do you offer to your students?
We have scheduled ourselves as such that we are giving activity period every day and there we have different activities, which includes sports, soft skills, debates, drama etc, and then we have students who are learning stitching, cooking and other such skills. Very recently, there was a Robotics Olympiad and our school stood second in it out of 300 schools. It was a big achievement for us. Students from 5-7 grades participated in it.
What is your fee structure?
Our fee structure, I would say, is in the mid-range. It is higher than the embassy-run schools yet very less than what other British schools are charging, for instance.
THE WAY FORWARD: Qudsia Asad, Principal of TNG, addresses the students at a school function.
