Education Minister
Dr Bader Al-Essa

KUWAIT: While Education Minister Badr Al-Essa confirmed accepting Palestinians residing in Kuwait to work as teachers, he denied the cancellation of contracts of any teacher working in government schools, be they Egyptians or anyone else. Essa told Al-Rai that accepting Palestinians comes as support for foreign recruits from Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan. He said contracts with teachers will only be in specialties needed by the ministry.

Essa said the education ministry is full of administrative jobs, while it has a shortage in some scientific specialties like mathematics and physics, adding "this problem is in most Arab governments". He said the ministry is going ahead with retiring those on the job for 33 years, which is a decision that will be implemented gradually every school year.

Meanwhile, Al-Jarida reported that the education ministry prepared a list of 400 teachers to be terminated by the end of the current school year as an implementation of the education ministry's decision to reduce the number of expat teachers by 25 percent in specialties with surplus in Kuwaitis and Gulf nationals. Informed sources said those included in the decision work in computers, social science and science, adding that they will be informed three months before the termination date. - Al-Rai, Al-Jarida