QNA
Doha
The Shura Council, chaired by Speaker HE Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim, on Monday deliberated on the request for a public discussion submitted by a number of members of the council on teachers and their impact on fostering the values of national identity.
Speaker of the Shura Council HE Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim stated that the State of Qatar significantly prioritizes young generations, in accordance with the directives of the wise leadership and stemming from its interest in reinforcing decent behavior and maintaining national and cultural identity.
He invoked Article 22 of the Constitution which emphasizes that the state protects young people from implications of corruption and exploitation, as well as deleterious consequences of physical, mental, and spiritual neglect, and provides an environment conducive for fostering their talents in a range of fields guided by proper education.
Al Ghanim underscored the pivotal role of teachers in building national ethos of young generations through ingraining values and precepts in their hearts and shaping the role model, highlighting that the Shura Council gives foremost priority to this matter.
Members of the council underlined that teachers undertake a sublime mission that goes beyond education to encompass instilling the values of national identity, pointing out that with the dramatic rise in the number of teachers recruited from a wide diversity of nationalities and cultures, challenges have emerged concerning the impact of these cultures and values on students, thereby prompting the enhancement of awareness-raising programs to foster the Qatari identity and help them internalize these values.
Members of the council inquired as to whether the Ministry of Education and Higher Education offers any rehabilitative programmes for teachers recruited from abroad to entrench national values and identity, with an emphasis on the community’s privacies and religious and cultural legacy, underscoring the importance of evaluating these programmes, if any, along with their effectiveness and commitment of schools to them, particularly private schools.
Members also noted that such programmes should introduce the culture and identity of the Qatari community to ensure the educational process aligns with the national trajectory.
Having deliberated on this matter, the members of the council stressed the importance of incorporating relevant provisions into the agreements concerning the recruitment of teachers from abroad, compelling them to internalize the community’s culture and respect its identity, underlining that such agreements should be reviewed to ensure equilibrium between safeguarding national identity and capitalizing on global talents.
Having confirmed that the discussions concurred in achieving the balance between cultural openness and safeguarding national identity, with an emphasis on teachers’ role in bolstering the community’s values and culture, the council decided to refer the public discussion request to the Education, Culture, Sports, and Information Affairs Committee to be thoroughly scrutinized, in terms of the overall aspects and submitted to the council accordingly.
The session continued, during which the council approved a bill concerning the national emblem and referred it to the esteemed government, following a review of the report from the Committee on Internal and External Affairs and a discussion of its details by the members of the council.
In addition, the council deliberated on a report regarding the visit of Shura Council’s Qatar-Georgia Parliamentary Friendship Group to the Parliament of Georgia in September 2024, as part of strengthening bilateral ties.
