Public Education strives to catch up with private education: Report
Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Mohammad Al-Fares acknowledged that public education lacks the administrative flexibility of the private education. Public education is subject to bureaucratic rules, provisions and bylaws that are supervised by the Civil Service Commission, whereas the private sector has its flexible rules and work mechanisms, the minister said.
“For example, (in the private sector), a phone call is enough to secure all the technological needs of the school,” he said. The minister added the Ministry of Education has to transform to the thinking patterns and management approaches prevailing in the private sector to reduce paperwork and improve performance.
The main role of the Education Ministry is enhancing the quality of education process in the country, he said. He, however, admitted the lack of an institutional evaluation system, especially for assessing the performance of schools. He emphasized the need for introducing a comprehensive and flexible system in the coming period to develop public education to be able to compete with the private education.
Meanwhile, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education Haitham Al-Athari described claims that Kuwaiti parents are opting for private foreign schools in searching for developed education as “untrue.” “The situation in public and private schools is the same. There are high and low-quality private schools and the same applies to public schools,” he said. Athari also affirmed that teaching methods in both schools are identical. He said that the Ministry of Education does not rely on the tautological methods, but rather on skills-focused ones. Public schools methods focus on teaching students thinking, interaction, teamwork and technological skills, he clarified.
Critical thinking
Dr Fatma Al-Hashem, who enrolled her children in an American school, said she has chosen an American curriculum because it focuses on harnessing different skills and teaching children critical thinking and innovation. “Foreign schools also organize many activities and events and are not confined to studying. Such activities are not in public schools due to the high-density of classrooms,” she said.
Hashem added that foreign schools also help students master the English language. She believes that the private educational institutions have succeeded in making the school an attractive place for students by giving much attention to the essence of the educational process, changing traditional teaching methods, heeding students’ needs and better equipping them with the skills they need for the future.
In the meantime, Dr Siham Al-Qabandi said: “Yes, I chose foreign education for my children since the preschool stage.” She stressed that most foreign schools are run by highly-qualified educational staff. “My children has enjoyed their study (in a foreign school) and acquired multiple skills,” Qabandi added. She said that she has deep conviction that the best investment is in the children education. “So I wanted to help them be qualified to live successful lives, especially that I noticed since the beginning that private education focuses on developing student’s personality through teaching them self-reliance, interaction and teamwork.” She elaborated that the studying in a highly disciplined foreign school has taught her children who to abide bylaws and regulations, starting from school uniform. “They have also participated in the preparation of activities and different sports such as swimming,” she said. Qabandi also noted the teaching methods applied in foreign schools help discover students talents. “They also teach students important values such as volunteerism, responsibility and self-reliance.”
Advanced systems
Ahmad Saleh, also echoed a similar view. “I have chosen foreign schools because of their discipline and advanced educational systems that do not focus on memorization and dictation, but on skills,” said Saleh. He explained that educational methods in the private sector depend on teamwork, mind activity and searching for information in different sources. He stressed the development of curricula and educational system should be a top priority to the state.
Saleh said foreign education was “an indispensable necessity” to catch up with scientific development. Public education does not “cope with the spirit of the time and therefore cannot be base for a true scientific renaissance,” he said. —KUNA