Manama: Academic institutions across Qatar will resume classes on September 9, the Supreme Education Council (SEC) has announced in a long-anticipated move to unify education terms and holidays.

“Schools will reopen on September 5 for the administrative and teaching staff and on September 9 for students,” SEC said in a statement in Doha. “The mid-year break will be from February 10 until Thursday February 21 with students and staff returning to school on February 24,” the council said.

According to the academic calendar, the summer break will start on June 26 and end on September 9 for students and stretch from July 25 until September 5 for school staff.

All kindergartens and private schools should comply with the dates set by the council to ensure a unified calendar, SEC said.

The statement about the school year by SEC should come as good news for parents of young children in Qatar following years of pressure to unify school breaks and resolve the issue of lack of synchronisation in holidays between independent and semi-independent schools. Families with children in different schools are often unable to enjoy common holidays or plan vacations.

“The move is meant to reinforce family stability and to allow families to enjoy school holidays together,” SEC said, local Arabic daily Al Sharq reported on Sunday.

“All stakeholders in the education process are set to benefit from the unification of the academic year while learning institutions will be able to better coordinate their efforts and boost performances. Other institutions will also improve their partnerships with schools on activities,” the council said.

In April, Humaid Mohammad Obaid Al Qutami, the UAE Minister of Education said that holidays for all public and private schools, colleges and universities across the UAE were to be unified from the academic year starting in September.

The move will help strengthen the education sector and will contribute to enriching the stability of families, Al Qutami said.

Moves to unify the academic year could be resisted by colleges aligned to parent campuses in terms of curriculum delivery and exams.