Minister makes cuts in tuition fees for private, Arab schools

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Academic year mechanism specified

KUWAIT CITY, July 30: The Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Saud Al-Harbi settled the issue of tuition fees for the past and next academic years, with a reduction of 25% for the year 2020/2021, and a reduction of the second installment for the year 2019/2020 by up to 80% for Arab schools, reports Al- Seyassah daily.

In the context, the Minister of Education specified the mechanism for completing the academic year 2019-2020 for the twelfth grade and the method for adjusting the cumulative average for the tenth and eleventh grades, in addition to the method for calculating the marks of students who were included in the decision to move to the higher stage and did not have marks due to absence or other circumstances.

In confirmation of what was published by Al-Seyassah newspaper in its last Thursday issue about reducing the percentage of tuition fees for education, Dr Saud Al-Harbi issued a ministerial decision to reorganize the tuition fees for the academic year 2021/2020 by reducing it by 25%, while the decision looks ambiguous for school year 2019-2020, because the decision was marked by vague and overlapping wording indicating that it was drafted in haste and without revision.

Educational sources indicated told the daily the decision provides for a 25% deduction from the fees for the new school year 2020-2021, while the fees for the second semester of the 2019-2020 academic year for Arab schools from the first to eleventh grades will be calculated for only 24 days, which is the number of the working days during this semester, which will be in the range of 30 dinars per student, while the students of the twelfth grade will have to pay in full, while the rest of the educational systems will pay the full fees.

In the decision, Dr Saud Al-Harbi stressed the need for private schools to adhere to all their educational systems to activate distance learning via the electronic educational platforms that include virtual classes and all other learning resources from the beginning of the academic year 2021/2020 according to each educational system, and until students are allowed to return to schools. Al-Harbi indicated that all provisions of Ministerial Resolution No. 10 of 2018 regarding the cessation of increasing tuition fees for private schools in all their educational systems remain in effect for the period from the date students are allowed to return to schools until the end of the academic year 2021/2020.

Dr Saud Al-Harbi, the assistant undersecretary for special and qualitative education, authorized Dr Abdul Mohsen Al-Huwaila to issue executive decisions and organizational regulations for this decision, in particular the mechanism to activate distance learning in private schools, the system for electronic educational platforms, the study and evaluation system, the approval of study plans and the academic calendar, and the application of sanctions Included in Ministerial Resolution No. 10/2018 for schools that are found to be in breach of this decision.

For his part, Al-Huwaila emphasized that the cost of activating distance learning in private schools in general is less than the cost of traditional education in several aspects, the most important of which is the decrease in all actual operating expenses related to the budgets of the administrative and educational bodies.

For example, Dr Al-Huwaila pointed to the cost of consuming electricity and water is low because students are not in schools, the rate of depreciation of school buildings and their assets, and the cost of maintenance of the school building and its accessories are lower than normal conditions.

He explained that private schools, according to the origin, do not provide their students with educational services only, but extend their obligations to provide several other services related to sports, social and cultural activities, which the student will be deprived of as a result of receiving educational services via means of distance education only.

This news has been read 38337 times!