Academic Study In The UK Context: Education in Qatar and the UnitedKingdom

Schools and how they operate differentiate between each country and another. If we were to compare between the education in Qatar and the UK, there's definitely a huge difference between them.

Children entering school in the UK would most probably be accepted into the school between the ages of 4 or 5 whereas in Qatar private schools accept students from the early age of 3 years old and 4 to 5 for public schools.

Mentioning private and public schools, public schools in Qatar are owned and run by the government, the curriculum is mostly taught in Arabic and much simpler and straight forward than private schools. When graduating, its all about the percentage you get, that's all. Where in private schools, IGCSEs are taken in year 10 and 11, then the students chooses between AS, IB and whether to continue to A levels or not. In the UK they'd study for 13 years and finish their A levels. This means in the UK the length of education is one year longer.

"The school education in Qatar is controlled largely by two bodies – The Ministry of Education and Supreme Education Council. There are also the privately managed independent schools in Qatar. Majority of these schools are managed and run for English speaking western expatriates, although local families too, send their children to these schools. The schools are for children of American, British, German, French, Pakistanis, Indians, Egyptians, Japanese, Filipinos, and several other nationalities" (Onlineqatar, 2005).

Nationalities in the school differ according mainly on the abilities of the student. From a stereotypical point of view, someone that is good in English and speaks it fluently would most probably be in a private school, those who are weaker in English would be in public ones.

Holidays in Qatar are mainly Ramadan, Eids, Spring, national and independent days and half terms. In addition, Christmas and Easter holidays in private schools. They are the same in the UK although without Ramadan and eid obviously.