Ali Al-Mudhaf

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: Public, private and foreign schools will reopen for on-campus learning in late September and early October amid stringent health precautions by authorities, Education Minister Ali Al-Mudhaf said yesterday. All foreign-language schools will reopen for students on Sept 26, while public and private Arabic schools will reopen on Oct 3, the minister said. The maximum capacity for any classroom will be 20 students, with students sitting two meters apart. A strict mask mandate for students will be enforced, he added.

Foreign schools will be allowed to offer online classes before Sept 26, with students attending on-campus classes from that date, Mudhaf told a virtual press conference following a Cabinet meeting. For public and private Arabic schools, classes will be divided into two groups: The first group will go to school on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, while the second group will go on Monday and Wednesday. In the next week, groups will swap attendance, with the second group going on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday and the first on Monday and Tuesday. The groups will continue to alternate on-campus attendance, the minister said.

The duration of each period has been extended to one hour from 45 minutes to allow teachers to compensate for any loss in education due to the closure of schools from last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Like the overwhelming majority of countries around the world, Kuwait shut down schools and universities in the last academic year due to the pandemic and resorted to online education.

Mudhaf said a majority of teachers, students and administrators have been vaccinated, and those who choose not to get vaccinated are required to undergo a PCR test every week on Sunday. Students are prohibited from gathering in any form, while all group activities are banned, he underlined.

MP Mohammad Al-Huwaila yesterday called on authorities to reduce the cost of the PCR test from KD 20 to KD 10. MPs Abdulkarim Al-Kandari and Khalil Al-Saleh meanwhile called on the government to facilitate the return of foreign domestic helpers to help working families who are scheduled to return to work on Aug 15. The two lawmakers said strict government procedures have made it difficult and extremely expensive to bring back helpers or recruit new ones.