No rest days for students in grades 10 and 11 exams – Some parents raise alarm

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KUWAIT CITY, March 11: Some parents have raised the alarm about a defect in the exam of grades 10 and 11 students, which is scheduled to begin on May 7. The exam will continue from the first day to the last without a day of rest within the week- as done in previous school years, reports Al-Rai daily.

The parents presented a complaint to the daily saying the annual trend is that every Tuesday in the exam week is a rest day, while the next day is devoted to difficult subjects such as physics, mathematics and English language, to give the students enough time to prepare, review and take a breath in this critical period.

They stressed the need to review the schedule and shift it two days backward; such that the first day of exam will be Sunday, May 5 rather than Tuesday, May 7.

They believe that there is no problem with this proposal. They explained the ‘rest days’ make a lot of difference to students and parents if they do not make any difference to the officials and decision makers at Ministry of Education, and it’s very important for preparations.

They appealed to the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Hamid Al-Azmi to intervene and reschedule the dates two days early to grant the students rest days in the middle of each week. The parents pointed out that uproar made on social media concerning the dates of the exams focus on the fact that it falls within Ramadan, while many of them are not even aware of the dates for the tenth and eleventh grades.

They emphasized “the exam falling in Ramadan isn’t a problem, because it will definitely happen next year even if it doesn’t happen this year, as the end-of-year exams cannot be in April”.

An official source declared that observations of the parents were reasonable, affirming “the issue was discussed at the general meeting of the Board of Directors but senior officials refused to allocate days of rest in the 10th and 11th exams to ensure the completion of exams before the last ten days of Ramadan, and completion of the grade twelve exam before Eid Al-Fitr holiday. They also plan to give the control committees enough time to correct and record the grades, and announce the results later ”. The source affirmed that he does not know the reason for the refusal, saying “ I am only a member of a group of officials. We presented our proposals, views and decisions to the senior officials represented by the Ministry of Education, and from my personal point of view, I do not see a significant problem in the subject, because it is not necessarily about allocating rest days within the middle of the exams”.

The source pointed out that senior officials of the ministry have rejected every proposal to shift the exam dates backward, even for the fifth graders, “as we demanded that exams of those students be separated from that of their counterparts in the middle and high school to avoid taking it in the holy month of Ramadan, but all of our proposals have been rejected. The decision was made in accordance with the timetables announced,” he stressed

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