Paper written by Prof Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) EM omarkasule@yahoo.com
I recently visited Qatar and looked at the education scenario. There are many educational institutions, local and international as well as public and private, at all levels of education: elementary to university. The Qatari Supreme Education Council controls the local public institutions the most important being Qatar University. The Qatar Foundation set up an educational village where it built the basic infrastructure to allow foreign universities set up branches. I visited the village and saw branches of several universities including: Georgetown, Texas ATM, Virginia Commonwealth, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon and others. Students in the village are Qataris and non-Qataris (children of expatriates living in Qatar or students who come in on student visas). The facilities at the foreign universities are very good. Qatar university is on a major building program to modernize its facilities. Overall the future picture is positive for Qatar becoming a significant educational hub in the Arab world and West Asia.
The problem of dichotomy (Islamic vs secular, modern vs traditional, Arab vs western ) in education is very obvious in Qatar and calls for a solution. The best is not choosing one approach at the expense of others. What is needed is a well studied and systematic integration of knowledge, takamul al ma’arifat, that will involve infusing Arab and Islamic values in the basic paradigms and methodology of each academic discipline. The integrative approach will appeal both to the foreign universities (they want to be relevant to an Arab and Muslim society) as well as to Qatar university and the private schools (to deliver modern knowledge in a locally acceptable cultural and philosophical ambiance).
It is therefore recommended to set up an epistemology and curriculum center that will (a) provide consultancy services to all these educational institutions regarding epistemological and curriculum reform (b) organize academic seminars on educational philosophy, epistemology, curricular and educational reform that contribute to the intellectual landscape of Qatar that houses so many Arab and Western think tanks.
