Doha,April,11: Several private schools have made it compulsory for their students to buy textbooks for the newly introduced subject — Qatar History, but many expatriate parents are upset because the books are expensive. Teaching Qatar history was made mandatory for private schools from last year and the Supreme Education Council (SEC) had issued two books for the subject, which together cost QR180. The reader for grades 1 to 10 costs QR126 and the workbook is priced at QR54. Most schools had been relying on photocopies to teach the subject in view of the high prices of the books. Some Asian schools had made an official request to the SEC last year to reduce the prices to make them affordable to the large number of low and middle income Asian families with schoolgoing children. “We have no indication that the prices are going to be reduced. So we have asked our students to pay the money in advance. We cannot place orders without knowing how many students are willing to pay,” said the principal of an Indian school, which started classes for the new academic year early this month. The school has set an April 15 deadline for students to make the payment. Some schools have already started collecting the money along with the prices of other textbooks. Some concerned parents say that the prices of Qatar History books alone come to more than 50 percent of the total prices of all other text books. The high prices have become a burden especially for parents with more than one child in the school. “I have two children in different classes and I have to pay QR360 in total. The total cost for complete texts for my children (Grades 8 and 3) was around QR600,” said an Indian parent in a letter sent to The Peninsula. He appealed to the SEC to reduce the prices saying they are not affordable to 70 to 80 percent of the Indian families, with children in schools. Enquiries with some other private schools yesterday revealed that they had not received any instruction from the SEC making it compulsory for students to buy the textbooks. source:Qatar Chronicle

Follow us on our social media channels: @ILQlive @ILQlive @ILoveQtr ILoveQatar