Ministry allocates KD 600,000 for school AC maintenance

KUWAIT: Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Hamed Al-Azmi said the university law that was passed by the National Assembly recently is a development project for the education process, updates previous laws and is not a replacement of the co-ed ban law; rather its introduction mentioned the ban law no. 24/1996. Azmi said the new law cancelled the laws of Kuwait University, Sabah Al-Salem University City, and Jaber University because it includes all existing and future universities, adding that the cancellation was to prevent clashes between laws. He said the co-ed ban law is valid as the new law did not cancel law 24/1996 with regards to higher education in Kuwaiti universities, applied education institutes and private schools. He said the law applies to existing and new universities according to a constitutional law ruling. He said this law provides many educational opportunities for Kuwaiti youth through the establishment of new public universities. He said a new public university will be established without major cost in the current buildings of Kuwait University and will be operational immediately after moving to Shadadiya. He said the law targets education quality control, as it put the burden of quality on public universities in their programs according to international and local standards.

KD 600,000
Ministry of Education's (MoE) assistant undersecretary for financial affairs Yousef Al-Najjar said the ministry had signed three contracts to supply, install and maintain 900 air conditioning units in public schools in various educational areas of a total value of KD 223,500, ie KD 74,500 per contract. Najjar said MoE had allocated KD 600,000 to replace malfunctioning air conditioners in some schools so that these schools could be ready before the new academic year begins. Notably, MoE has had several problems concerning maintenance of air conditioning units at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year. In another educational concern, educational sources said MoE is working hard to declare the results of the second session exams today; noting that students in the arts section finished their last exam in statistics on Wednesday, while those in the science section finished their last exam in biology on Tuesday.

Co-ops inspections
Ministry of Social Affairs' cooperation inspectors started intensive inspection campaigns in various co-ops to track down any violations, said informed sources, noting that over 100 citations had been issued since May, including 30 in June. The sources added that the violations include bad storage conditions, not separating foul items, unjustified employment and not respecting regulations concerning the number of Kuwaiti employees.

Mutlaa city
The Public Authority for Housing Welfare followed a number of strict measures with the contractor executing the second contract at Mutlaa city to ensure meeting the contract's schedule and make up for the 30 percent delay to avoid withdrawing the project, said informed sources. The sources added that the authority mandated the contractor to finish the first phase by July 13, add 148 new pieces of equipment and hire 20 subcontractors for drainage works.

By A Saleh