Kuwaiti student sues Education Ministry, wins case overturning failed school year

Dubai: A Kuwaiti court has overturned an Education Ministry decision that failed a middle-school student and ordered that she be declared successful and promoted to the eighth grade after a technical glitch prevented her from accessing online classes.

The dispute began during the second semester when Kuwait’s Education Ministry was operating a remote-learning system through Microsoft Teams under exceptional circumstances.

While other students attended virtual classes, the student was unable to access the platform for more than two months because of a technical fault that persisted until April.

The student and her family challenged the decision in court. Her lawyer told the court that once the technical problem was resolved, the student completed and submitted all assignments and other academic requirements.

He argued that the circumstances at the time had prevented her from reporting and explaining the problem to school administrators while it was occurring.

Despite evidence that the technical failure was beyond the student’s control, the Education Ministry recorded her absence as unjustified and assessed her academic performance as “poor”, resulting in her failing the school year.

After examining the circumstances of the case and evidence relating to the technical problem, Kuwait’s Administrative Court annulled the ministry’s decision, including the failing result and poor assessment.

The court ordered the ministry to recognise the student as having successfully completed the academic year and promote her to the eighth grade.

The ruling effectively prevents the student from having to repeat an entire school year because of the prolonged technical problem that prevented her from accessing the remote-learning platform.