COVID-19: Kuwait schools to continue e-learning for second semester

Kuwait City: The Minister of Education, Dr. Ali Al Mudhaf, announced on Wednesday that all schools and educational institutions will continue e-learning for the second semester of the 2020/2021 academic year.

In a press statement, the minister pointed out that the decision may be revised based on the health situation in the country.

The announcement came as Kuwait is witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases and is enforcing new measures to curb the spread of the virus.

While the decision came from the Ministry of Education, they are working in coordination with the Ministry of Health to ensure that the decisions are in line with the health situation.

E-learning

Since the 2020/2021 school year began, all schools and educational institutions have been conducting the academic year online.

The State Audit Bureau recorded that the Ministry of Education used over 64 million Kuwaiti to introduce e-learning as part of the public school education system, Al Rai reported.

Although the Ministry spent a large portion of its budget on e-learning, only 5 per cent of the 426,000 students and teachers within the public education system used the e-portal.

School closures

All schools, pre-schools and universities, were closed since March 12, 2020 over the growing concern of the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

After a seven-month halt, all public schools began the 2020/2021 academic year but it is all being done online. Private schools as well are conducting e-learning for the current academic year, but most private schools continued the 2019/2020 school online.

The only schools that were given the green light to operate to have in-person lessons are schools for children with special needs, who resumed classes on December 20.

After the decision was announced, MP Osama Al Shaheen called on the Ministry of Education to reduce school fees.