Gulf | Bahrain
Bahrain ministry rejects call for private schools to start after Eid
Bahrain's education ministry has rejected a request to make private schools start the new academic year after the Eid.
- By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
- Published: 13:23 June 21, 2009
Manama: Bahrain's education ministry has rejected a request to make private schools start the new academic year after the Eid.
"The beginning of the academic year in private schools is an individual choice decided by the school, according to its statute. Some of the schools open their doors at the same time as the foreign-based schools with they are affiliated to and therefore they synchronise their academic year with them," a spokesperson from the education ministry said.
“We appreciate the calls by parents to postpone the start of the new year to make it coincide with that of the government schools, but such a decision is left to the concerned schools,'' the spokesperson said.
The education authorities this year took the extraordinary decision to open government schools after Eid, the three-day feast that follows Ramadan, Muslims' holy month, expected on September 20.
Students at government schools usually start their academic year by the end of the first week of September, but amid concerns that they would not show up and that the Eid holidays would disrupt regular attendance, the education ministry drafted a new school year, moving up the start of the year and shifting vacations and days off.
Parents welcomed the ministry's move and hoped that private schools would emulate it. However, none of the schools aligned its calendar with that of the education ministry, prompting parents to exert pressure.
However, the ministry argued that it could not intervene in the decision.
“Each private school has its own conditions and concerns and their 2009-2010 calendar is entirely their own. We are fully aware that they all comply with the official days off decreed by the government, but the rest is decided at heir own discretion,'' the education ministry spokesperson said.
The ministry has over the last years resisted calls by parents to have the private school align their mid-school year holidays, usually taken in December, with those of government schools, invariably taken in February.
The ministry said that the timing of the holidays was entirely an internal school decision.
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