Palestinians to work at Kuwait schools in sign of warming ties
Ties suffered for three decades after Palestinians supported Saddam Hussain’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait
Atotal of 180 Palestinians have been shortlisted in a selection process to teach in Kuwait’s schools as the country prepares to take back Palestinian teachers following a hiatus of almost three decades.
Palestinian officials said that 1,173 teachers, including 425 women, had applied for positions in Kuwait.
A Kuwaiti delegation is currently in Palestine sifting through the applications, Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) said.
The shortlisted applicants will go through a written exam to be followed by a personal interview, Assistant Undersecretary at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education Fatma Al Kanderi told the official news agency.
“Kuwait is keen on recruiting Palestinian teachers and we hope that the procedures to acquire the services of the applicants will run smoothly,” she said. The contracts with the successful applicants will be open-ended.
Important step
Palestinian Education Ministry Undersecretary Basri Saleh said accepting Palestinians into Kuwait’s educational system was an important step towards reinforcing cooperation between Kuwait and Palestine. “This visit marks the establishment of a In 2012, Khalid Al Jarallah, Kuwait’s foreign ministry undersecretary, announced Kuwait and the Palestinian National Authority had reached an agreement to reopen the Palestinian embassy.
In April 2013, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas attended the reopening of the embassy describing it as “a historic moment in the deep-rooted relations between the two countries.” In his speech, Abbas paid rich tribute to Kuwait, saying that it had hosted thousands of Palestinians and that it fully supported the Palestinian issues.
“We will always recall that the Palestinian struggle was started here and that the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Fateh movement were born and nurtured here thanks to the Kuwaiti rulers and people,” Abbas said. In April 2016, Kuwait’s education ministry said that it would be recruiting hundreds of Palestinians to teach Mathematics and science in its schools. The teachers will be hired from Palestine or locally from the Palestinian community in Kuwait, it added. The announcement put an end to a ban imposed in 1990 on recruiting Palestinians to work in Kuwait. new era of wide cooperation between the two countries in the education sector and other sectors as well,” he said.
The Kuwaiti delegation began its visit on Thursday and will conclude its mission on Saturday.
Palestinian teachers had a significant impact on development of education in Kuwait during the early days of the nation-building process. However, Kuwaiti-Palestinian relations turned sour in 1990 after the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain on August 2, 1990.