Dr Bader Al-Essa

KUWAIT: Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Bader Al-Essa strongly denied a statement circulating on social media attributed to him and claims that he said he would put his kids in private schools instead of public ones. The minister explained in a statement yesterday that what he actually said was incompletely quoted and needs to be explained. Essa explained that responding to a question about why people enroll their kids in private schools, he said that there are three reasons in his point of view for this. "Some people believe that public education is bad and does not meet their aspirations, others believe that teaching English in the primary stage by native speakers would be better, while a third party is only after prestige," the minister said. He added that if asked where he would prefer sending his own kids to, he would choose private schools for the second reason, particularly at this time when the education ministry needs four years to develop its curriculums and teach scientific subjects in English, which is already applied in private schools.

The minister stressed that he also remarked that such a preference did not mean Kuwait did not have any outstanding public schools nor that bad private schools did not exist. Notably, MP Mohammed Al-Hadiya had severely criticized Essa's statements about preferring to send his kids to private schools. "Such statements by the man responsible for the educational process means public schools have malfunctions," he said, noting that millions were being spent on education and a minister who had been in office long enough makes such statements.

Juveniles' age

MP Saleh Ashour stressed that legislating a reduction of juveniles' age from 18 to 16 would be dangerous, and it would be unjustified to reduce the age when a child could be held legally accountable just like an adult. "If is legislation is passed, juveniles will be transferred to the central prison," he warned, noting the change would also allow a juvenile to get married, form companies, drive or even travel unaccompanied. Meanwhile, the parliamentary legislative affairs committee rejected suggested parliamentary amendments to the juvenile law. In this regard, the committee chairman MP Mubarak Al-Harees said three proposals were rejected.

Bedoons' children

MP Mohammad Al-Enezi said that he discussed allowing the children of military bedoons (stateless) and those registered in the 1965 census to enroll in the army with Defense Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, who showed a great deal of flexibility towards the matter.

'Pornographic' comics

MP Abdullah Maayouf yesterday issued a very strong warning to the information minister for his responsibility of the book fair, where some comics he said contained 'pornographic material' were displayed for sale. "The minister has to take very strict measures against those responsible for allowing those books in, otherwise we will use our constitutional tools against him," he warned.

Jaber Stadium

The Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS) yesterday set December 12, 2015 as the date to reopen Jaber Stadium and the information ministry's assistant undersecretary for TV affairs approved the budget allocated for a concert to be held on the occasion. A letter was sent by the assistant undersecretary declaring that the opening ceremony would be attended by HH the Amir and that a large number of Arab and GCC singers would take part in the concert.

Price control

Minister of Commerce and Industry Yousif Al-Ali yesterday said that his ministry was capable of controlling prices and avoid increases if taxes are imposed on local and foreign companies. "Imposing those taxes does not call for increasing prices for more than one reason," he added, explaining that Kuwaiti companies already pay 4.5 percent in indirect taxes. "We are technically speaking about a maximum of 10 percent, which means taxes would be minimal and do not call for increasing prices," Yousif underlined

Camel competitions

The Interior Ministry's weapons inspection director Major General Farraj Al-Azobi said that weapon inspection teams would be deployed all along the roads leading to the camel and cattle competition sites where those traditional competitions are held in Jahra to search for weapons and prevent any law violation in this regard. "We will have foot and undercover patrols to immediately arrest weapons users," he added.

By A Saleh