The management of Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha has announced a plan to invest about QR50m to develop a brand new school campus in Abu Hamour.

The one-and a-half-decade-old community school, governed by a Board of Trustees, is housed in a rented villa near the Midmac flyover.

“We have been allotted a 10,000- square-metre plot of land by the government of Qatar. The estimated cost of the building is about QR40m-45m. We have collected about QR7m, more than 10 percent of the amount required to obtain bank loans,” Kumudu Fonseka, Founder Chairman, Board of Trustees, told The Peninsula yesterday.

“We have appointed a consultant and construction will start by this November. We are waiting for a ‘Comfort Letter’ from the government of Sri Lanka which is required to obtain bank loans,” he added.

Fonseka said the school management is negotiating with banks, including Commercial Bank, Mashreq and Barwa Bank, to secure loans and stressed that it would not be difficult to obtain loans as the school has been doing well and providing annul increments to its staff without a fee hike for five years.

He said the new building has been designed in such a way that the project can be implemented in three phases as per the requirements of the school, complying with all rules and regulations of the local entities.

On technical difficulties and ‘alleged’ delays in the construction process, he said: “Qatar government has given us two years to begin construction, and we are much closer to the deadline. 

“But we have requested for one year’s extension as there is a delay in getting the letter from Sri Lanka,” said Fonseka. The school, a non-profit organisation, was established in October 2001 under the patronage of Meerasahib Mahroof, then Sri Lankan ambassador to Qatar. It was inaugurated with 14 children from a villa which is now serving more than 1,000 children. 

Asked if the school is able to cater to the needs of the growing Sri Lankan community, he said: “We have never returned a single Sri Lankan student who came to us seeking admission. We keep on expanding capacity to serve better… To our luck, the adjoining Palestinian school is shifting to a new site and we are taking that building, which will expand our capacity by 40 percent.” 

On the recent controversy about “lack of transparency” in the functioning of the school, he said the school is overseen and managed by a group of professional trustees, including  six chartered accountants and five top engineers, who are serving voluntarily. “We are one of the most affordable community schools in Qatar, offering quality education. Several Sri Lanka-based schools came here to study the economic viability of opening schools in Qatar, but given our competitive fee structure, they shelved the idea.”

The school is approved by the Supreme Education Council of Qatar and is also a centre for Edexcel International (UK) Edexcel IGCSE and GCE examinations.

(The Peninsula)