Mosaica Education, Inc. supports
Middle East education reforms
Mosaica Education, Inc.
is playing a key role in bringing educational
reform to the Middle East.
In
2004 Mosaica
was selected by the State of Qatar to help reform the country’s
education system. This country wide reform was designed
to improve the education programs in Qatari schools and to give
parents a choice in the educational programs of their children.
This education reform is based on charter school models currently
being implemented in the United States.
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Independent Schools Program
Mosaica Education, Inc. as a leader
in the operation of innovative charter schools in the US, which
emphasizes strong basic skills, an inter-disciplinary curriculum
and extensive use of technology, was contracted to support four
primary schools in the first year of the reform.
In the second year of the reform
project Mosaica’s contract was renewed to continue as a School
Support Organization (SS0) for three additional Qatari independent
schools through an 18-month transition to self-management, by
providing the schools with input on infrastructure and administration,
as well as recruiting teaching and support staff. The
Mosaica staff supports the schools in every aspect of operation.
During the school year our staff supports the implementation
of the new national curriculum standards that have been developed
for Qatar and are the focus of the curriculum reform. Support
includes the selection of appropriate curriculum resources,
curriculum mapping, lesson planning and working with teachers
in the development of teaching methodologies that focus on student
centered instruction.
Lifting standards
Autonomy, accountability, parental
choice, and diversity are all important elements in Qatar’s
education reforms.
By moving away from its previous
centralized approach, the country is lifting educational
standards and ensuring that young Qatari’s can fully participate
in today’s global economy and at the same time, Qatar wants
to preserve its own values, culture and beliefs, and part of
our role is to help them to do this.
The project is exciting, not only
because Qatar’s new approach to education is an integral part
of the sweeping economic and political reforms that are placing
the country in the forefront of change in the gulf region, but
also because Qatar’s example is viewed as significant in neighboring,
similarly wealthy, Gulf states.
If this project proves successful,
Mosaica anticipates a broader involvement in the Qatari education
system, and in other educational systems in the region.
Mosaica’s experience
This project is well suited for
Mosaica as we are performing the same role in Qatar that we
perform in United State in our work with charter schools.
Experience has shown the self-managing
approach to be sound, providing schools can turn to agencies
such as Mosaica for support in matters such as identifying a
board of trustees training, recruitment, technology, management,
and administration. The Qatar authorities are aware that there
is much to learn from our experience. Building professional
learning communities are best done in partnerships, and this
project brings our two countries closer through our education
experiences.
