Qatar warns against school absenteeism

Qatar's education authorities have warned schools against relaxing students' attendance rules. Allowing students to break the regulations about not attending classes amounts to wasting valuable time and education resources and instilling in them negative traditions that include laziness, reliance on others, mismanagement of time and lack of readiness to learn and move forward, the authorities said, local daily Al Raya reported on Wednesday. Under education rules, students who do not show up for class for two consecutive weeks or for 30 days over the academic year are not allowed to take the final exams. Students, particularly in high schools, tend to extend end of the year or religious holidays in the absence of strong action from schools. Qatar, like some of the other countries in the Gulf and Middle East, have invested large funds to reform education and have been pushing for higher learning standards and greater commitment from students to turn into achievers.