Kuwait teachers assn criticizes Minister of Education

The Kuwait Teachers Society expressed severe criticism towards the Minister of Education, Dr. Saud Al Harbi, for his mismanagement of the education issue during the COVID-19 crisis.

In a statement, the Teachers Society said that they lost confidence in Al Harbi as he does not have a vision or strategy for the future of education in Kuwait.

Education Matters, a parent and educator, told, “The minister was unclear about his decisions from the beginning. Plus, at the start of the pandemic, the minister refused online learning as he said that the ministry was working on an online platform. Why were they more concerned with creating an online platform than the future of our children’s education?”

Last week, Al Harbi announced that all classes will be conducted online for the first semester. He added that the decision will be revised in November and will take into account the health situation of the country.

According to a report by Unicef, preschools should be the first to be considered to open as remote learning has proved ineffective in most cases. In addition, preschools are important not only for the child’s educational career, but also for the parents to ensure that their children are being cared for as they return to work.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, most of the teachers felt that they were left out of the decision making process. Many have voiced their concern with e-learning as they are not trained to teach online or do not have the resources to do so.

Sarah Boodai, co-owner of Leap preschool said, “Online learning for younger children does not work, it is an unrealistic option. We tried it for a few months but we were lucky if we got the kids attention for more than five minutes.”