Manama: Bahrain’s Education Minister Majid Bin Ali Al Nuaimi has defended the ministry’s decision not to enrol underage students automatically, saying admissions would be done only in accordance with rules and regulations.
Several families have complained that they could not enrol their children born in December 2011 to start their formal education in public schools.
Al Nuaimi said the ministry complied with the regulations.
“Under education regulations, the ministry is committed to provide seats for all boys and girls aged six by August 31,” the minister said.
“However, exceptions are possible whenever there are vacancies, and this explains why we were able to include those born in the following three months, September, October and November, but not those in December. Nevertheless, we are keeping the door open, and if there are more vacancies in public schools, we will sign up those or some of those who were born in December 2011.”
The minister warned private schools against enrolling students aged four or five in first grade, saying that the children were too young to absorb the requirements of a formal education.
“Reliable studies have demonstrated that those who are four or five years old are not prepared for the first grade,” he said. “Another serious problem that we face is when parents who enrol their underage child in a private school after one or two years want to transfer him or her to a public school. The child would for instance be six years old in a class for seven-year-old students. We insist on applying the rules linking students’ ages with their school levels.”
Bahrain has 207 government schools for 134,000 students, almost equally divided between girls (102 schools) and boys (105). More than 61,500 students attend the 75 private schools in the country.
