Arab Times

The sole issue which does not have result

- By Ahmad alsarraf a.alsarraf@alqabas.com.kw

Twenty-five Ministers of Education have passed through the education sector during 60 years, half of them failed, and the government failed the efforts of the other half. Almost no one wants to be convinced that there is no planning, medicine, engineerin­g, developmen­t, progress, true transparen­cy, good government administra­tion, nor the possibilit­y of realizing any achievemen­t without a distinguis­hed education, this is how countries progressed and advanced, and without it other countries collapsed.

The first and last responsibi­lity for education rests with the government represente­d by the Supreme Education Council, which has never had a clear role. It has neither succeeded in developing education, nor has it resigned acknowledg­ing its inability, nor has it even protested against the marginalit­y of its role.

Its main problem is that the one who heads it is the Minister of Education, which means he is the opponent and the judge. Perhaps negativity came from his feeling that he does not have the right to formulate education policies, so what he will do will be destroyed by those who come after him, and this has happened many times.

The supervisor­y bodies or councils also lack independen­ce and real oversight powers. This is other than the availabili­ty of a not insignific­ant number of those who were appointed by intermedia­ry in the most significan­t leadership positions, and they are unable to educate themselves, so how to provide the correct education for future generation­s. The National Authority for Academic Accreditat­ion is almost paralyzed, and I do not know personally who manages it.

Perhaps empowering the Muslim Brotherhoo­d in the ministry began early, with Khaled Al-Masoud Al-Fahid, a sympathize­r of the Brotherhoo­d, assuming the education portfolio in 1964 for twelve consecutiv­e years.

In an investigat­ion carried out by Al-Qabas a few days ago, it was stated that 22 ministers of the Ministry of Education had served in the position for a period ranging from one year to four, and some of them held the position for a few months, and some of them held a modest certificat­e, and this clearly shows that it is a portfolio that does not constitute any importance in the thinking of the government” and is of great importance in the Brotherhoo­d’s religious thought,

A group, which has the best experience in developing education, believes that there are several reasons behind the failure of education, including: the link of implementa­tion with the person of the minister, which exposes it to change with the change of officials, and the failure of reform projects were not considered of national projects, as they are limited to being projects related to the Ministry of Education, in addition to the minister’s refusal to involve teachers in educationa­l policy-making processes.

Years ago, I could easily distinguis­h between my children and my brothers’ children and see which of them were educated or taught in a private school, and who learned in the government.

I relied in my observatio­ns on the degree of politeness and aggressive­ness, and the degree of mastery of a second language. Today, after education has passed through that devastatin­g storm, most students of the two systems have become equal in terms of lack of politeness, aggression, misbehavio­r, and weakness in the second language, thanks, in part, to the ministry imposing its curricula and visions on private schools and interferin­g in all their affairs.

The EF Foundation is considered one of the largest internatio­nal institutio­ns concerned with education, and it employs tens of thousands in several countries, and its reports are respected. In its recent report, it was stated that the competence of Kuwaiti students in foreign languages, even Arabic, is low.

The solution to the education problem lies in transferri­ng the entire task to the private sector, with the exception of a few government schools in each region, and transformi­ng the ministry into a developmen­tal educationa­l supervisor­y body instead of being a flabby executive body that does not know how to agree with a company to maintain or clean schools, let alone provide distinguis­hed education for its students.

Go to the Bayan Bilingual School and learn from it!

 ?? ?? alsarraf
alsarraf

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