AT THE HELM: Principal Nabila Kaukab at her office in Pak Shamaa School. One of the pioneer institutions in the field of education in Qatar, Pak Shamaa hosts 1,700 students today and plans to expand further. Photograph: Umer Nangiana
By Umer Nangiana
Established in 1958, Pak Shamaa School was the first expatriate school in Qatar. Beginning from a rented facility, the school has evolved into a state-of-the-art campus imparting education to 1,700 students today. Principal Nabila Kaukab, in charge since 1995, speaks about the challenges faced by the institution and its ambitious expansion plans.
Are you satisfied with the students’ performance at your school?
You can never be fully satisfied. There is always room for further improvement but yes I am reasonably satisfied with their work. I think the percentages can be improved. Here, parents, too, have a huge responsibility. Their co-operation can be instrumental.
What problems do you face at the school that you think can hamper students’ progress?
The problems that we face come mostly from the community here in Qatar. In many cases, we have to educate the parents before the children. Recently, more educated families have moved here. Few years back, it was bad. The parents would not even know in which class their child was studying in or what was he studying. At times, the teachers are made to do even the parents’ job and get some students do their homework in the class. The parents’ response is non-existent in such cases.
What can be done to address this problem?
We arrange parent-teacher meetings but then again the response is not there from the parents. They do not feel the need to go to school. So when a student fails or scores poorly, for instance, we call the parents and educate them on how to help their child at home to make him/her score better.
Besides parents’ lack of co-operation, what are the other problems?
Nothing much really. We have streamlined the administration to make it easier for parents and students, for instance. And I do not face much difficulty tackling the issues, if and when they arise, because I have been supervising the functions of this school for many years now. I can handle them.
It is observed that students overseas score below par compared to their peers back home in Pakistan, why is this so?
One big reason is the papers we get in examination. The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Islamabad (FBISE), which we are associated with, for instance would set two different papers for overseas and home and the one we get is the toughest. Last year, for example, the chemistry paper was so tough that even the teachers here were complaining. The same paper back home was comparatively easy. This is unjust. We have already raised this issue with FBISE and have urged them to set the same paper for both overseas and home institutions or at least keep the one for us at the same level, if it has to be different. The evaluation of papers and marking is same for all.
The other reason why more students secure better grades is that the students back home get ‘double schooling’ through tuitions.
Why can’t the children fare better without private tuitions?
I think it has developed into a trend here as well as back home where majority of students rely on private coaching classes. The students whose parents do not help them at home mostly go for this option. It has developed into a culture. We discourage it at our school, yet in certain cases the students still go for private tuitions.
It is becoming almost impossible to eliminate this culture. The parents think it is necessary in order for their children to perform better. But I have examples like one of our female students who secured second position in Gulf in Grade 10 examination last year and she took no private tuition. I always tell parents that you have to ensure your children’s 100% attendance in the school and they would not need any tuition or extra help.
Is it true that some students in this school are getting free education?
Yes. You know most of the students come from low-income families who sometimes find it difficult to meet the expenses of all their children’s education. So the school provides for such students even though our fees are not very high. In the English Medium stream, for instance, we have students who are unable to purchase books or uniforms. For them, the school provides extra financial assistance besides the officially allowed concessions.
What are the officially allowed concessions?
If someone has four children studying in the school, the fourth child would study on half-fee. In special cases, we go further to allow the fourth child to study completely free of cost and the third child to pay half-fee. Yet in other cases, we also arrange for the books and uniforms for deserving students.
Who provides for this financial help?
Some community members come forward and contribute generously besides staff and the school’s management. It enables the school to create a pool from where they can financially help such students. At present, we have almost 10% of the school’s total strength studying free of cost.
How do you keep up with the technological advances in education?
I think it is a must for any school in order to stay modern or else you lag behind. At this school, we have three fully equipped computer workrooms besides updated science laboratories. We have also installed the latest ‘Smart Boards’ technology in at least one of our wings at the school’s International Stream and we are ready to expand it further to other wings. We tend to stay updated on all technological advancements in the field of education. There are expansion plans to accommodate 500 more students, and increase staff strength later this year.
Is the school’s policy aligned with Qatar’s education policy?
Since the inception of Supreme Education Council (SEC) we have to be in line with them on several aspects. For instance, we introduced a course on Qatar History two years ago in our syllabus and it is taught according to the guidelines provided by the council. Similarly, we have to follow the council’s rules on admissions and deletions. They have made the system online. We have to feed the results to the system so that the entire data at our and their ends synchronise.
Has this improved processes?
Curricula and educational policies of Asian schools differ from those of other international independent schools here. For instance, our term starts in April, their starts in September. So these little things create some confusion but we have been working on it and much has been streamlined over the last year.
The Pak Shamaa School campus in Mesaimeer.