* Ministry's preparations for beginning of new academic year completed

Eight new schools will be opened in Qatar during the 2022/2023 academic year, a senior education official has said.
Of these, five will start operating on August 21 for boys and girls in the preparatory and secondary stages.
Each of the new schools will accommodate 786 students, including 36 children with disabilities, which are divided into six classes in each school, while the rest of the 750 students are divided into 30 classes.
HE the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh al-Nuaimi informed this in a statement to Qatar News Agency.
With only a few days left for the new school year to begin (Aug 21), all parties and partners of the educational process and the educational field to students and their guardians are full of confidence and optimism, hoping that it will be a year full of work, achievements, and obtaining the highest grades to reach distinct outputs, able to compete in the labour market or enter the most prestigious universities locally or internationally.


Director of the Health and Safety Department at the Ministry of Education Mohamed Abdullah al-Maraghi
More than 225,118 students in 212 public schools and kindergartens, and more than 215,000 in 338 private schools and kindergartens, return to school on Aug 21, after the ministry completed all the arrangements and requirements for the start of the new school year, for the first time with the full attendance, following the decline of the Covid-19 pandemic's outbreak.
The administrative and teaching bodies started on Aug 14 to make the necessary preparations, receive students, and distribute school class schedules, books, and stationery on the first day back.
The remarkable success has been achieved by the ministry in the academic years 2019/2020 and 2021/2022 despite the pandemic.
Despite the concern that studies would stop for a long time and not complete the teaching of the subjects and the academic year as a whole, as well as the concern of parents and society for the health and safety of their student children, the ministry helped in enabling students to conduct their studies through this system through distance e-learning alongside the successful infrastructure achieved in the field of e-learning.
The arrangements for the new academic year include a number of axes and initiatives announced by HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Buthaina bint Ali al-Jabr al-Nuaimi to develop the educational system in Qatar during the next eight years to achieve the Qatar National Vision 2030.
The axes and initiatives were announced during the first educational meeting organised by the ministry under the slogan 'A Flame of Learning', which celebrated the start of the new school year.
The axes centre around students, teachers, schools, and the ministry itself, while initiatives that have great ambitions are concerned with training and mentoring new teachers, focusing on the quality of student life, and excellence by designing different development paths for public schools, as well as developing mechanisms to support and follow up on schools' performance.
The new academic year will be marked by the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, an event that Qatar and the Arab region have been anticipating for 12 years, during which the country witnessed major infrastructure changes, and became the centre of the world's attention, as it is hosting this tournament for the first time in the Middle East.
This year also coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of formal education in Qatar. The ministry will organise many events and related activities throughout this year.
Dr al-Nuaimi said that the ministry's preparations for the new academic year 2022/2023 have been completed with everyone looking forward to a special year, full of hard work and perseverance.
Qatar has been receiving global attention and has fully prepared to host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. It's a historic opportunity to highlight the country's educational system, he added.
Dr al-Nuaimi pointed out the initiatives announced by HE the Minister of Education, highlighting their importance in terms of their focus on the development of the school environment, distinguished teachers with high training, school buildings, and the teaching environment for students.
According to the current health indicators of the pandemic, and in co-ordination with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), precautionary measures related to combating the pandemic have been announced since the beginning of the academic year 2022/2023.
Director of the Health and Safety Department at the Ministry of Education Mohamed Abdullah al-Maraghi explained that at the beginning of each academic year, the administration prepares follow-up plans related to health, security and safety aspects in schools, which includes following up on school canteens, school environment safety and security, evacuation and safety procedures in emergency cases.
Generally speaking, one of the most prominent of these measures is adherence to precautionary measures, particularly in terms of wearing a mask and maintaining physical distancing, al-Maraghi said, noting that in regard to examinations, antigen test is currently required to be taken at home with the beginning of the school year for administrative and teaching cadres and students at all levels of study.
As for confirmed cases of Covid-19, the department is co-ordinating with the competent authority in the MoPH to examine contact cases through the school, he added.
Director of Al-Markhiyah Primary School for Girls Wadha al-Hajri said that the preparations for the start of the new academic school year started in late 2021, when all the school needs were raised, and vacancies were identified in the administrative and teaching staff.
Al-Hajri said that preparations for the second round exams have also been prepared, exam schedules have been sent since the end of the last academic year, and examination committees have been identified, noting that the date of which coincides with the start of the school's teaching staff.
As part of its preparations for the start of the academic year 2022/2023, the education ministry has organised a back-to-school campaign under the slogan 'With Education, We Build Qatar,' with the participation of several supporting and sponsoring agencies.
The ministry also launched the 'Illuminations' initiative, under the slogan 'We Dialogue, We Enlighten, We Rise', which is an ambitious initiative that embodies its convictions and belief in a meaningful and transparent dialogue with all parties of the educational system.
Preparations for the start of the new academic year 2022-2023 were not limited to the educational, public and private sectors, but also included other concerned parties, including the General Traffic Department, which has been preparing a comprehensive plan each new academic year, as part of the Ministry of Interior's continuous efforts to achieve a safe and accident-free traffic environment, and to maintain the safety of students and road users, especially areas surrounding in schools, where the crowds are intensifying with parents keen to get their children to school in the early days of school.
Based on the excellence and development that the educational system in Qatar has achieved over the past years, everyone is confident that the new academic year will be a year of prosperity and rich and fruitful successes, as Qatar is preparing to host the most important international sporting event FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.