Traditional games at a QF school help build national identity

Traditional games at a QF school help build national identity

The classrooms and outdoor areas at Qatar Foundation’s (QF) Tariq Bin Ziad School vibrate with the voices of children playing traditional games and chanting folk melodies taken from Qatar’s heritage – all part of the goal of revitalising folklore and preserving national identity.

The school – part of QF’s Pre-University Education - offers the International Baccalaureate programme while promoting national, Arab, and Islamic identity.

Maha al-Romaihi, director of the school, explains: “Tariq Bin Ziad School is unique in the sense that it combines cultural values and local heritage with world-class education.

"One of the most important things we do in our school is to strengthen national identity through academic content and traditional games, to produce global citizens, but global citizens with a local spirit and a strong national identity."

Al-Romaihi observed the school has been working to promote and celebrate the Qatari dialect, as students at private schools, or in QF schools that follow an international curriculum, speak English instead of using Standard Arabic, and this mean students can move away from using the local Qatari dialect.

"The Qatari dialect has not disappeared, but it is not used enough,” she said, “so we seek to strengthen it. And we have