Qatar woos top graduates to teaching

Teach For Qatar (TFQ), a non-governmental organisation that seeks to reinvest Qatar’s brightest graduates into the public education system, was launched by HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al-Thani yesterday.

The launch event at Katara the Cultural Village was attended by senior officials, including HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, as well as teachers and students.

The NGO intends to attract talented university graduates and young professionals from various backgrounds and specialisations, provide rigorous teacher training and place them as teachers in independent schools across Qatar for a two year “fellowship”.

Fellows continue to receive support all throughout their full-time teaching jobs, in the form of additional training, mentorship and regular reviews.

HE Sheikha Hind  called upon “our youth who have benefited from the flourishing of higher education in Qatar to take advantage of this opportunity to give back to their community, and to be part of a process of change that perhaps they once dreamed of effecting when they were young students themselves”.

The niche model has been welcomed by local independent schools, 10 of whom have signed agreements with TFQ to hire teachers recruited and trained by the organisation.

“We are proud of the growing collaboration between us and the independent schools that will be taking TFQ Fellows on board,” said Mohamed Fakhroo, managing director of TFQ.

“I thank them for their trust in this initiative, and look forward to welcoming more partner schools.”

TFQ is the 32nd member of the Teach For All, a global network established in countries around the world including Lebanon, the UK, Malaysia and Japan.

The organisation begins this week a recruitment drive to attract young leaders around Doha in the lead-up to the May 10 application deadline. Informational booths will be available at Hamad bin Khalifa University Student Centre and Qatar University, where interested university students and young professionals can test their knowledge of core subjects, sample the teaching experience and interact with members of TFQ and apply for the two-year fellowship.

Upon completion of the two-year teaching placement, fellows can continue to contribute to the development of Qatar’s education system through career pathways developed by TFQ pathways alongside Qatari institutions across various sectors.

“Our hope is that our Fellows will continue to support relevant institutions in closing the education gap by working with them to further develop school curricula, education policies and by mentoring future Teach For Qatar fellows,” Fakhroo added. More information could be had from: http://teachforqatar.org/en/
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