Education development … millions wasted, repeated failures

The decision of the Ministry of Education to reduce tuition fees in private schools by 25 percent over the period of distance education for the new academic year 2020-2021 has generated wide reactions at various levels and segments of society, reports Al- Qabas daily. The unexpected decision of the minister of education in light of the current exceptional circumstances has raised many questions, as to whether or not the matter was sufficiently studied.

Why did the government represented by the Ministry of Education resort to this decision? Is it a popular cover or a temporary drug for the failure of the entire education system in the country? Was it not better for the minister of education to start developing the educational system in public schools that have been abandoned by many citizens? Educational experts confirmed in separate statements the educational system in Kuwait is flabby and suffers major failures for years, and despite the huge budgets allocated to public education, the level of output is not commensurate with the size of expenses.

Failure
Educators are surprised by the failure of all international agreements concerned with the development of education in the country, the most recent of which is when the World Bank agreement did not achieve its goals and the country incurred millions of dinars without interest.

They pointed out that all global indicators revealed a decline in the ranking of the State of Kuwait in primary education compared to the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, while it came last in the Gulf in terms of quality secondary education, in addition to low quality school administration.

They indicated the last global competitiveness report also ranked Kuwait at the bottom among the Gulf countries in quality education and training, and recorded twice the quality of the education system according to international standards as a result of the decline in all indicators in the past years.

They were surprised at the low level the country has reached in the most important aspect of life, wondering what Kuwait lacks to be in the ranks of the educationally developed countries?

They emphasized the development of public education in the country would stop people from resorting to private schools, considering that citizens opted for private education because of their disbelief in free public education that sees no improvement.

They declared that government’s failure to develop public education produced poor-quality private schools and outputs, which did not meet ambition, while the presence of some private schools with poor education outcomes has covered government’s failure to develop the educational process.

Reduce
They indicated the decision to reduce tuition fees for private education may create a new problem, as private schools need comprehensive maintenance after suspending their activities for many months, citing the maintenance of air condition units, classes, cleaning and hygiene.

They asked: Who will guarantee the execution of these necessities after reducing the fees, especially as the schools monitor high budgets for this matter? Who guarantees the decision will not be at the expense of education? They pointed out that the decision to reduce fees is a success for the ministry in the short term. However, it has opened large doors for the imbalance rooted in the educational system in the country.

Educational experts stressed the need to find a specific local mechanism through which the quality of public and private education in the country will be measured in line with international measurement classifications. They called on the Ministry of Education to reconsider the mechanism for determining the value of tuition fees and the general rules by which private schools will be classified, linking them to the quality of the educational system in each school, as well as the level of outputs, its capabilities, cadres and teaching experiences

Source : Arab Times

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