Private schools in Bahrain turn down suggestions to postpone academic year

Manama: Private schools in Bahrain have turned down suggestions to postpone the academic year to minimise the threat of swine flu, saying that they did not want their students to waste valuable education time.

"Some have suggested that the school should remain closed until after Eid. We considered this possibility and concluded that it would be most undesirable for students to lose this extensive period of teaching time unless absolutely necessary," St Christopher's School, an international school with 2,500 students, said on its website. "In the case of GCSE students in Year 11 and A-level and IB students in Year 13, who all have final examinations from May 2010 onwards, a delay would undoubtedly have the potential to impact negatively upon the results that they will obtain next summer."

The school said the ministries of education and health have endorsed the opening of private schools, after they laid specific requirements, and that its classes would start on September 7 as planned.

However, the school said that it was taking special measures to help prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus.

"In addition to the requirements of the ministries of education and health, we have installed hand sanitising dispensers in virtually every classroom, toilet facility and kitchen and have ordered very large stocks of boxes of tissues," it said.

Al Bayan School will also keep its schedule and its students will start classes on September 1, four days after an entrance exam is held.

Students at Bahrain School, a US-run school with a large international community, have already been given their schedules and classes will start on Sunday. The school this year is re-enrolling children of US military families after the Pentagon allowed them to return to Bahrain five years after it asked military families to leave the island based on what it called "an increased threat of terrorist attack''.

Government schools in Bahrain will re-open after the Eid, on September 23.
The closure of schools has been a significant debate topic in Bahrain amid concerns about the spread of the swine flu. However, it is being overshadowed by the more passionate arguments over whether to allow people to perform Umrah or go on pilgrimage.

In the US, guidelines for the pandemic of swine flu discourage the early closure of schools, unless the virus becomes worse. In Britain, the authorities said they do not expect to order widespread school closures to prevent the spread of swine flu this autumn, while in Canada, health officials this month warned against hasty school closures based on one or two students falling ill even though a second wave of the H1N1 swine flu is expected soon.