Separation of edu ministries an opportunity for a change

Move will help minister to envision nature of work

KUWAIT CITY, March 4: Academic and educational circles welcomed the move by the Council of Ministers during the formation of the new government to separate the Ministry of Education from the Ministry of Higher Education, as it will provide a space for the minister concerned with education to focus optimally on a specific entity and make a qualitative leap in its development and lay the foundations for its advancement with an emphasis on cooperation and coordination between them to provide high-level educational outputs, especially this will make the minister of education independent without affiliation to any other party except for the Ministry of Education and its schools.

This will also help the minister to envision the nature of work and the capabilities of his ministry’s undersecretaries and senior ministry officials to keep up with its aspirations and the vision it aspires to achieve.

Resolved

The sources explained that the Minister Ali Fahad Al-Mudhaf has resolved the issue of the vacancy of the position of the undersecretary of the ministry for a year and a half ago, as confirmed that the position was decided by the nomination of an academic in the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training it is likely that the Council of Ministers will consider it during the coming period, noting the need to resolve the renewal of the position of undersecretary in the legal sector, the private and qualitative education sector, which have been vacant for nearly seven months, not to mention the vacancy of the positions of three school district directors that are being administered by proxy for more than a year.

This is in addition to many supervisory vacancies in the sectors, including the Director of Financial Administration, Director of Coordination and Director of Development and the Director of Engineering Affairs indicating that these vacancies coincide with an exceptional and critical period that requires a double effort in dealing with the corona pandemic to draw a clear framework.

In this context, a number of academics, educators and specialists in the field of education have expressed their optimism that Dr Muhammad Al-Fares who has assumed the position of Minister of Higher Education is well-versed in education affairs and has a good reputation in academic circles and a good listener of all opinions and could distinguish between what is good and what is bad.

The sources stated Al-Fares will bring about the required change in academic institutions, files and basic issues, which represent the first steps of reform, on top of which is the filling the vacancies in basic academic institutions – the position of the director of Kuwait University, PAAET, the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and the Higher Institute of Arts, Play and Music, which requires a quick decision to manage it far from the so-called ‘parachute’ appointments.