The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has launched an electronic pre-registration system in private schools for the next academic year, in order to decrease the number of mistakes in the enrolment process.

The ministry has held a workshop to provide a detailed overview of the new system, which is expected to ease the registration procedures for both schools and parents and guarantee that all students get the required seats before the start of the 2018/19 academic year.

A key advantage of the system is that it will oblige schools to stick to the capacity allocated by the ministry to ensure the safety and security of students, the official Qatar News Agency reported yesterday.

Also, parents would be able to know the number of children on the waiting list as well as the number of seats available in the required class in all schools where an application is submitted.

Hamad al-Ghali, director of the Private Schools Licensing Department at the ministry, said there is huge load on private and public schools during the pre-registration phase, something that prompted the ministry to launch the electronic service to ease the burden. He said the new system will help guarantee that students are enrolled for the new academic year.

Al-Ghali said the Private Schools Licensing Department, in co-operation with the Information Technology Department, has launched the facility to deal with any difficulty while registering in more than one school or kindergarten.

According to a statement by the ministry, the system will make sure that schools abide by the capacity allotted for each class by the Joint Services Department. A school will have the freedom to distribute the available vacant seats in the classes they have.

In addition, the new system guarantees that no acceptance exams or interview is conducted in case no vacant seats are available. The online registration system will show the educational background of the student over the past two years, which will help schools learn about the student's school, curriculum studied and class.

Parents would be able to follow up their e-applications through the reference number received through an SMS generated by the system. Al-Ghali said schools should enter all applications received from students into the system and determine the admission tests, whether written or interviews, and send an SMS notifying the parents about the designated date and time.

Schools have to verify the contact numbers of parents entered in the system to facilitate communication. In the event of booking a seat and paying the required fees, guardians must know that the names of such students will be removed from all waiting lists.

Besides, parents should also know that a school would not be able to book a seat for their children after completing the registration process in case fees and charges are due to another school. This is aimed at protecting the rights of all schools.

Al-Ghali stressed that all schools should abide by these instructions and register all new students in the National Student Information System at the start of the new academic year, pointing out that this is only required for new students.