publish time

15/11/2020

author name Arab Times

publish time

15/11/2020

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 15: Ministry of Health has plunged its counterpart, Ministry of Education, into a new impasse, which adds to the series of problems facing the educational system during the COVID-19 pandemic, by refusing to allow paper-based (written) examinations to be conducted for the first semester of the secondary stage, in preparation for the students’ return to school in the second semester of the current 2020/2021 academic year, reports Al-Qabas daily. The decision has placed the Ministry of Education between the hammer of the Ministry of Health’s rejection of paperbased tests to achieve justice and equality among all students, and the anvil for the high percentages of high school students in the event of relying on the “online” system during the exams, which creates a new crisis of fake success and admission to universities.

This is happening in conjunction with the fears of academics that only the certificates of the electronic educational system will be recognized abroad. According to informed sources, Ministry of Education, in light of this situation, is studying a proposal to transfer the entire secondary school exams to the months of May and June 2021, in the event that it is not possible to conduct paper exams, to be one and unified at the end of the school year and comprehensive for the first and second semesters.

Meanwhile, Kuwait University adheres to the distance education regulation approved last July, and gives powers to college councils to determine the method of holding the semester and final exams, either in attendance or remotely. Senior university sources affirmed that the Ministry of Health had agreed for the university to permit attendance in halls for this purpose.