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Maneesh Bakshi
Doha
THE dream of the Turkish expatriates to have quality education at an affordable cost has finally come true with the opening of the first Turkish School in the Ain Khalid area of Doha recently.
Turkish Ambassador to Qatar HE Ahmet Demirok through whose efforts the school saw the light of the day visited the school premises on Monday.
"Amid expensive international schools in Qatar, the new Turkish school with moderately structured tuition fee comes as a big relief to the majority of the Turkish expats who belong to the middle income group," Demirok told Qatar Tribune.
"There are about 8,000 Turkish nationals living in Qatar who will directly benefit from this school providing decent education at a heavily subsidised fee in line with Turkish government's vision," the ambassador added.
The new school is spread over an area of 10,000 square metres, with a covered area of 3,000 square metres that can accommodate about 300 students.
The school has started with about 60 students and is expected to have around 100 students by the end of its first academic year. The school currently has classes ranging from grade one up to eighth grade.
According to the school's principal,Muhammet Ali Karatosun, the objective of the school is not to make profit, but to provide good education as per the Turkish curriculum at an affordable cost. Besides, the school offers additional Arabic and English language courses at an annual fee of QR5,000.
"We hope to further bring down the annual tuition fee by next year when the school will run to its full capacity. Currently, it has 10 teachers and almost the same number of non-teaching personnel including security and maintenance staff," he said.
