A number of expatriate community schools are facing a rush of admission-seekers months before the new academic year gets under way, Gulf Times has learnt.
These include schools that cater mainly to the Indian and Filipino communities in Qatar.
While the demand far exceeds the number of seats available at Indian schools, the Filipino schools have been witnessing an increase in the number of applicants every year, according to the officials concerned.
The situation is particularly worrisome for Indian expatriates as many of them are finding it hard to secure a seat for their children in community schools, where the new academic year will begin in April.
Officials of a number of Indian schools have stressed that the demand is several times higher than the seats available. These schools had to cut down on new admissions since two years in line with a directive from the Supreme Education Council (SEC) to bring down class sizes to reasonable levels.
This time, too, the availability of seats is limited for KG as well as higher classes, it is found. G Rajkumar, acting principal of MES Indian School, said they were yet to get permission for admissions this year too from the SEC. “If there are no admissions, we will not have Class 1 this year as we could not admit any child in KG classes for the past two years. Discussions with the SEC are going on.”
Ideal Indian School principal Syed Shoukat Ali described the situation as “very difficult”. “We have received three to four times more applications than the number of seats available. After admitting the siblings of existing students, there will not be many seats left for others,” he said.
The response to announcements on opening online admissions has been overwhelming in some cases. For instance, the available slots were filled up within 15 minutes of opening online admissions, said Joseph K, manager at Birla Public School, noting that the school had only about 75 seats for KG after admitting siblings.
Some schools have closed online registration for this year’s admission process, adding to the worries of parents desperately looking to secure a seat for their children.
Meanwhile, the demand for seats is also growing at Filipino community schools in the country. Philippine School Doha (PSD) principal Alexander Acosta has stressed that the demand for seats and number of enrollees continue to increase every year.
PSD, located in the Al Messilah area of Doha, has been receiving hundreds of "reservations" every year due to the growing Filipino population in the country.
The number of students on PSD’s waiting list is between 300 and 500 annually and about 150 are being admitted, according to the school registrar’s office.
While the school faces some space constraints at present, Acosta is confident that the new PSD building in Abu Hamour will meet the growing demand for seats.
Philippine International School Qatar and other schools have also reported an increasing number of enrollees every year. Officials say they are flooded with requests from parents to consider admitting their children. The new academic year will begin in June at Filipino schools.
Some international schools, too, reportedly have candidates on the waiting list. One of them is American School of Doha (ASD), which has confirmed that it has candidates - Qatari and non-Qatari - on the waiting list.
A campus improvement project is expected to provide additional and enhanced spaces, which will offer “great opportunities for current students and students who attend ASD years into the future”, according to ASD marketing and communications co-ordinator Belinda Jones.