Ambassador  Santos:  welcomes the loan  to PSD.

By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter


A bank in Qatar has approved a QR108mn loan for the construction of the Philippine School of Doha (PSD) building in Abu Hamour, it is learnt.
A senior official of PSD told Gulf Times that they recently got the bank’s approval and will soon hold a groundbreaking ceremony at the 14,375-sq m plot donated by the Qatar government.
However, the school management has to find additional sources to finance the project that is estimated to cost more than QR120mn.
“At least QR120mn is needed for the construction of the building but the school will shoulder the remaining QR12mn,” he said.
PSD has so far raised nearly QR1mn from its fund-raising activities. Some Filipino organisations have vowed to help by holding more similar endeavours.
Now operating with 2,700 students from a rented building at Al Messilah, PSD’s  new building is designed to accommodate about 4,000. One school official expects the construction to start this year.
Philippine ambassador Wilfredo Santos welcomed the loan  to PSD, saying it would allow the school to move forward with its plans to build an own and bigger building.
“The Philippine embassy has always been supportive of the efforts of PSD to expand its facilities,” he told Gulf Times.
“This development will certainly benefit many Filipino families in Qatar particularly those with children of school age as well as those of other nationalities who want their children to avail of the high quality of education provided by PSD,” Santos said.
Frank Jamandre, the chairman of the United Filipino Organisations in Qatar, echoed the ambassador’s statement,  saying they were thankful of this new development citing the increasing number of Filipino students in the country .
The closure of Asian Integrated School recently affected some 400 Filipino students and  many of them were prompted to return home to continue their studies.
Jamandre also expressed their willingness to help raise additional funds for the building’s construction, which could take at least 16 months to finish.
He also cited the efforts of the Philippine embassy and former ambassador Crescente Relacion who helped  in getting both the land from the Qatar government and the bank loan.
The formal announcement of the loan approval will be made today at a press conference attended by Philippine embassy officials led by Santos and bank officials.
PSD is planning to hire additional teaching and non-teaching staff once the new building is fully operational. It currently has 90 full-time teachers.

Qatar has 152 English-medium international schools
International schools are still on a growth trajectory in the Middle East and Africa region, according to the latest data on the growth of the international schools market published by ISC Research, part of the International Schools Consultancy (ISC). The report shows the Middle East and Africa region having the second highest number of English-medium international schools geographically with a total of 1,616, next only to the whole of Asia which has 4,346.  By country,  the UAE leads the world with 511 international schools, while three other countries from the region figured prominently in the top 15, with Saudi (245 schools), Egypt (183) and Qatar (152) landing in 5th, 9th and 14th places respectively.