By Peter Alagos/Business Reporter
Two months after transferring to Philippine School Doha (PSD), the 150 students displaced by the closure of Asian Integrated School (AIS) have been able to adjust to their new environment, a school official has said.
Speaking to Gulf Times yesterday, PSD principal Dr Alex Acosta said “the transition was generally smooth”, referring to the afternoon classes allotted for the transferees since July 26.
While only a handful of AIS students were distributed in the morning classes, Acosta said many of the transferees distributed in the afternoon schedule were pre-school and primary-level students.
The principal explained that two classes were created for Kindergarten 2, one class each for Grade 1 and Grade 3, and another two classes for Grade 2.
“Aside from some challenges in the students’ adjustment to their new classes, school operations, particularly the afternoon schedules, have been running according to the mandate of the Supreme Education Council,” said Acosta, who had said earlier that the afternoon classes would go “full blast” by next year, prompting the school administration to hire more teachers.
Acosta also said the new students will be taking their second periodical tests after the celebration of PSD’s 23rd Foundation Day next month.
Former AIS parent-teacher association president Joseph Rivera said, “I believe they are all well-adjusted and based from the information I have received, all of the students have passed the first grading period.”
According to a PSD parent, the transfer of AIS students was timely because PSD recently received a three-year institutional accreditation from the Qatar National School Accreditation (QNSA) unit for private schools.
“As a parent, I am happy that my children are being educated in an institution with high standards,” she said.
Acosta said PSD is in the process of informing the Department of Education (DepEd) in the Philippines of the renaming of the PSD to Philippine Science School Doha (PSSD), which will be the school’s formal name once it starts operations on its new campus in Abu Hamour.