Ministry of Education suspends afternoon shifts in schools

Doha: The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has temporarily suspended its plan to grant permission to some private Indian schools to run afternoon shifts from the forthcoming academic year 2019-20.

“About five to six new Indian schools are set to open in the coming years with the capacity of big number of seats,” Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr Ibrahim Al Nuaimi told The Peninsula.

He said that new schools would be able to accommodate growing number of students that would address need for afternoon shifts.

“We had chalked out the plan to allow afternoon shift but have now suspended it temporarily till things become clear whether we really need these shifts or not,” said Al Nuaimi. He said that since many Indian schools were set to open in the coming years, it was not appropriate to start afternoon classes.

“We are going to wait to see how would the new schools accommodate the extra students. If they are able to accommodate, there will be no need to allow afternoon classes,” said Al Nuaimi.

Replying on the issuance of final decision from the Ministry on afternoon classes, he said: “Let us see the capacity of new schools whether they could accommodate growing number of students. But, I think it is not possible to allow afternoon shift during forthcoming academic year.”

Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education said that as per the plan, Indian schools had been allowed to run afternoon shift.

“The issue of the shortage of school seats was mainly for Indian schools and other schools such as Tunisian, Pakistani and Philippine have enough seats,” said Al Nuaimi.

According to parents, the schools returned the registration fees for admission for afternoon shifts. “I had registered my daughter in the MES Indian School for afternoon shift in grade 1 but the registration fees has been refunded,” said a parent.

The Indian schools which received the go-ahead to start the second shift, posted on their social media accounts that they had suspended the admission to afternoon shift and advised the parents to wait for further instructions from the Ministry.