The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) aims at providing national technical and professional labor to meet the needs of development in the country in all fields, and in order to achieve progress and prosperity for the state. Among the goals of the authority is to improve the Kuwaiti youth, who are the hope of tomorrow, and on who we rely to build our country. This is done by preparing qualified national labor for the middle technical and professional labor levels that Kuwait needs, and who can compete with expat labor in many production and service sectors where they can bear their national responsibilities in social and economic development.

This can be found in the authority's website and its close to being a chitchat than real, as nothing was achieved from what is mentioned over half a century. PAAET is considered the most failing government entity in its work, and was the reason behind the occurrence of educational catastrophes, administrative corruption and waste of millions of dinars, without succeeding in reaching any of its goals. The nursing institute which belongs to the authority is one of the examples of failure.

This college was opened in 1962 under the name of the 'college of nursing.' It used to be part of the health ministry, under the supervision of the Education Ministry, before being put under the applied education sector in 1988. This college did not succeed after 50 years of graduates in providing the medical service with any significant needs of the state from nurses of both genders. It is rare to find a Kuwaiti nurse who works in an actual nursing house. Joining the institution was only a ladder to get a qualification in a short period of time and get a higher salary.

Where are the Kuwaiti nurses? Why do we still see Indian nurses paying up to KD 10,000 per person to get a job in Kuwait? Bearing in mind that tens of thousands have been appointed based on this corrupt system, and all those who work in the health ministry know the truth of this matter for years, and the reason is that the Indian nurse happily pays such a huge amount because the salary for three years for example is nearly KD 40,000. In addition, the training they get in hospitals qualifies most of them to get jobs in European and American hospitals. This issue caused a silent crisis between the Indian and Kuwaiti governments. It was the subject of a parliamentary question, and one of the corruption aspects that surrounded one of the former health ministers. We cut the story short and say we are with the society's call to strike if the rights of the Kuwaiti nurses are not served, but before that, where are the Kuwaiti nurses? - Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Qabas

By Ahmad Al-Sarraf