KUWAIT: Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Saud Al-Harbi announced taking measures to eliminate obstacles stopping the optical fibers project, which is essential to proceed with e-learning, after completing about 80 percent of it in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications (MoC). This came in a press statement after Harbi’s meeting Sunday with the supervisors of the project for installing optical fibers networks from the MoC, in the presence of the MoE Acting Undersecretary Dr Bader Al-Mutairi.

Harbi underlined the need for this project since it is linked to the ministry’s plan for e-learning and distance education, considering that it is part of the government’s e-transformation program, linking educational agencies and schools to facilitate services and develop the educational process. Previously, the ministry accomplished vital steps, then it stopped for technical matters, which led to the delay in its completion, but all obstacles will be resolved with MoC to work on it and operate it soon, he noted.

Extremely fast

Meanwhile, the project’s superintendent Maali Al-Jasser said in a statement that the project was launched in 2012, with an implementation period of 18 months, aiming to connect all Kuwaiti schools and the ministry’s general office with optical fibers. This network is extremely fast as the student, teacher and administrator can benefit from it to transfer information electronically, nonetheless the ministry is in the process of extending the time completion, Jasser indicated.

The education ministry has asked grade 12 students to register in an online platform it recently launched as it prepares to potentially launch online classes before allowing high school seniors to take their finals by September. The education ministry had suspended school on March 1, with the current plan is to resume classes in August for grade 12 and October for other stages. However, the ministry is widely expected to make an announcement in the coming days to end the school year for all stages except for grade 12, while rescheduling the finals for grade 12 students in September after completing the remaining curricula through online classes next month. Over 95 percent of eligible 12 grade students have registered in the online platform, the education ministry had announced last week. Meanwhile, Assistant Undersecretary for Special and Qualitative Education in the Ministry of Education Dr Abdul Mohsen Al-Huwaila announced Sunday the activation of e-learning in Arab schools, with the participation of 45 private schools and 7,190 students.

Exemption

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Higher Education announced Sunday that university students registered for the fall semester of the academic year 2020-2021 online and those due to file for accrediting their certificates later on would be exempted from studying a number of subjects.

In this regard, the ministry’s official spokesperson and assistant undersecretary for cultural affairs, accreditation and scholarships Fatima Al-Sannan said the decision was made by the accreditation committee during its meeting last Thursday and that it was taken upon reports from Kuwait cultural offices abroad concerning many universities in scholarship countries shifting to online learning. Sannan added that the current dangerous health situation worldwide prompted the health ministry to recommend avoiding travel, and thus the decision was made to exempt the fall semester form the minimum number of subjects to be studied as per the ministry regulations.

Further, Sannan pointed that the Ministry of Higher Education met Sunday with US embassy representatives to discuss the US immigration department’s recent decision on the departure of international students from the US if they can do the fall semester online. She added that the embassy representatives responded to many questions in this regard and that coordination is still in progress with the embassy to prepare those responses and circulate them amongst Kuwaiti students in the US.