Doha, October 12 (QNA) - The Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) has launched the enhanced licensing system for private schools and kindergartens, a paradigm shift in the education system, as well as in the oversight of the nation's private education sector, through the adoption of multi-year educational licenses (ranging from 3 to 5 years) rather than the currently enforced annual licensing system.
At the press conference attended by HE Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) Dr. Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi, the Ministry elucidated that the new system aligns with the best regional and global practices in regulating private education and draws on flexible mechanisms for licensing and regular oversight through conducting comparative studies to ensure integration with national legislation and state-of-the-art practices.
Director of the MOEHE's Private Schools and Kindergartens Department, Dr. Rania Mohamed, said the system is a critical regulatory step to streamline procedures, support operational stability, and promote education quality through granting licenses that are based on clear-eyed criteria and superb corporate performance.
The Department has been committed to removing hiccups and challenges facing developers and investors in this sector through conducting a holistic study of the current situation, in addition to establishing specialized task forces to advance a flexible system that strikes equilibrium between the requirements of education quality and the efficiency of regulatory procedures, Dr. Mohamed highlighted.
She further indicated that this revamped system addresses key challenges the field has encountered throughout the past years, such as the short duration of educational licenses, as well as the multitude of requirements when renewing these licenses, along with their connection to numerous regulatory agencies.
The system observes the imperative of cost-effectively mitigating administrative and financial burdens on educational institutions and enhances investors' experience, in addition to creating a licensing platform for private education establishments that is more interactive and flexible in reminding schools and regularly following up on document validity, said Dr. Mohamed.
Dr. Mohamed elaborated on the key features of this advanced system, which are twofold, to offer long-term educational licenses, with the 3-year key educational license granted to new schools and existing institutions starting from January 2026, while a 5-year license is given to schools that demonstrate high and stable performance when renewing the fundamental license.
There are limited conditions that licenses should meet, such as obtaining a national or global school accreditation, achieving a rating of no less than "very good" in the efficiency of teaching core subjects during the last two supervisory visits, maintaining a staffing stability rate of not less than 70% among administrative and teaching personnel, and registering no major disciplinary sanctions within the past two years, she outlined.
Dr. Mohamed further averred that the system offers unprecedented facilitations to address challenges associated with the validity of annual documents, since the renewal of educational licenses has been decoupled from the validity periods of supporting documents such as civil defense certificates.
These certificates, she said, may now be issued for up to five years, along with lease agreement attestations and camera system installation certificates, while school owners are required to sign a compliance undertaking confirming fulfillment of these conditions.
The system includes technical surveillance of buildings and issues regular follow-up reports every 18 months to ensure compliance with safety standards, thereby reducing financial and operational costs by up to 80% for high-performing schools, Dr. Mohamed noted.
The actual commissioning of this advanced system is poised to be implemented in all private schools and kindergartens nationwide based on a timeline starting from October 2025, with incremental granting of licenses until December 2027, followed by the provision of advanced licenses starting from January 2026 until December 2030. (QNA)