KUWAIT CITY, Aug 29: Assistant Undersecretary for Public Education Affairs at the Ministry of Education Fatima Al-Kandari has announced a plan to apply new criteria for putting excellent mark in the evaluation sheet of teachers.In a press statement after her meeting with the official in charge of the Public Education Coordination and Follow Up Department, Al-Kandari confirmed a new mechanism will be laid down to include the evaluation of schools’ administrations.She added the distinguished education project supervised by the National Center for Developing Education will be launched during the new academic year 2017/2018 in some schools and then the rest of the schools later.She explained the new criteria for distinguished education includes the rate of adopting the self-evaluation system for teachers, stressing the need for participation in courses on improving professional standards and administrative abilities of teachers. She said the evaluation sheet for teachers will be revised in cooperation with the Civil Service Commission (CSC).She revealed the requests for canceling the decision to transfer a number of teachers and heads of departments are being reviewed, clarifying this necessitates revising the budgets of educational districts especially the requests related to heads of departments. She said the supervisory jobs have been settled while the transfer decision has been finalized.She also asked the educational districts to submit lists of classrooms, teachers and supervisors in kindergartens to pave way for the promotion of those on the waiting list.Talking about preparations for the new academic year, Al-Kandari said the relevant procedures are being taken; revealing there will be meetings with directors of educational districts during the first week of the new academic year which will start on Sept 5, 2017.Concerning teachers hired from other countries, Al-Kandari confirmed the arrival of 27 Palestinian teachers and there will be new batches arriving soon from Egypt and Jordan; while 44 have apologized for not coming to Kuwait for undisclosed reasons.She went on to clarify that the ‘future schools’ idea needs more study; adding she recently met Dr Ghazi Al-Rasheedi — the brain behind the future schools concept.  She added the project will be postponed for one year for further study.By Abdulrahman Al-ShemmaryAl-Seyassah Staff