Middle East Business

Qatar brings six new public schools into use for the coming academic year

By Staff Writer  |  23 August 2026

A ministerial decision opens six schools across Al Sakhama, Rawdat Al Hamama, Ain Khaled, Doha, Al Thakhira and Muaither, and moves 34 principals, a week before term starts on 30 August.

Qatar's Ministry of Education and Higher Education has announced the opening of six new public schools and the appointment of 17 school principals, with a further 17 principals transferred between schools. The measures were made by Decision No. 14 of 2026 and announced on Saturday, ahead of the 2026 to 2027 academic year.

The six schools are the Qatar preparatory and secondary school for science and technology for boys at Al Sakhama; the Qatar secondary school for science and technology for girls at Rawdat Al Hamama; Ain Khaled secondary school for boys; Doha preparatory school for girls; Al Thakhira primary school for boys; and Muaither primary school for girls. The ministry says the expansion is intended to widen the supply of school places and to develop educational capability in line with the country's growth.

Everything is ready for a successful school year.

Maryam Abdullah al-Mohannadi, Director of the Public Relations and Communication Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education

Six buildings and a fixed date

Term starts on 30 August. The ministry says its preparations are complete across curricula, school transport, textbooks and the readiness and safety of school buildings, and it will hold its annual educational forum on 25 August at the Qatar National Convention Centre.

For anyone working on public buildings in the Gulf, the interest in this announcement is the date rather than the count. A school programme has the hardest completion date in construction. There is no partial occupation of a primary school and no useful extension of time once term has begun, so the sectional completion provisions, the practical completion criteria and the handover documentation for a school are drafted tighter than for almost any other public building.

Where a school is brought into use at the start of term, the snagging list, the fire strategy sign off and the operation and maintenance manuals are usually being closed out around occupied classrooms. That is where defects liability arguments start.

What the decision does not say

The announcement records six schools opening. It does not say whether all six are newly built, whether any are existing buildings brought back into the state system, or when construction on any of them was completed. No contractor, consultant or cost has been published for any of the six, and no pupil capacity has been given for any of them.

Nor has any figure been published for the total number of public schools now operating, so the six cannot be read as a net increase without the closures, if there were any, alongside it. The ministry has framed the decision as a step towards the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and has left the delivery detail out.

Al-Mohannadi was speaking on the sidelines of a back to school event held in cooperation with the state transport operator, at which she said the ministry had completed its regular preparations. She was accompanied by Mohammed Abukhadija, executive director of commercial affairs at the operator, which is running the school bus service for the new year.