KBA expresses displeasure

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 10: “They ignored our children, marginalized their superiority and killed their joy of success.” These are the words with which the Kuwait Blind Association (KBA) expressed its displeasure and denunciation for the exclusion of its outstanding students from Al-Nour School as the first high school students in the literary section at the level of the special education schools administration and for not publishing their names on the Ministry of Education website and in the media, which led to frustration among these students and killed their joy, reports Al-Qabas daily.

During a press conference held a couple of days ago at the association’s headquarters in Maiden Hawally, the president of the association Fayez Al-Azmi said, “What the ministry has done in terms of denying the visually impaired their educational rights and underestimating their distinguished abilities calls for regret. A formal apology must be made for the outstanding students and their families. The best students from Al-Nour School must be honored, and their names must be published on the ministry’s website.”

He added, “Blind students have been wronged in the information technology subject, whereby each student is assigned a score of 10 out of 20. Blind students have been excluded from this subject according to what is customary. Also, they did not study it in the first place, which affected their academic achievement and their percentage despite their ability to study and excel in it.”

Al-Azmi elaborated on the obstacles facing blind students, including the attempt to cancel their Braille, which is a universal means of reading and writing for them, and replace that with audio recording of school materials, as the Department of Special Education had pledged to do that without referring to specialists among the blind and the people from the educational field.

He insisted that, “This decision is a clear violation of Law No. 8/2010 for the disabled, which encourages interest in Braille and provides all the requirements for taking care of it.” Al-Azmi lamented that the Department of Special Education procrastinated in granting the disabled employees their rights for promotion in supervisory positions by concealing the relevant bulletins and not circulating them in a timely manner. Meanwhile, the Honorary President of Kuwait Blind Association Fahad Boushaiba affirmed that the rights of the outstanding students from Al-Nour School are preserved and they have all the appreciation and pride in this great achievement.

Furthermore, the Secretary of the association Mansour Al-Enezi declared that, “The Department of Special Education is a state within a state. Its director does not receive the blind despite the many letters sent to him in this regard throughout the school year.”

He highlighted that, “When the association requests to meet His Highness the Prime Minister now and in the past, the response comes within two weeks. They listen to us and our proposals with all openness. This is unlike the senior officials at the Special Education Department who do not include our participation in making decisions that affect the blind category, which undermines their rights that the law gives them.”

In addition, one of the outstanding students Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi appealed to the officials to amend the fatal mistake committed by the Ministry of Education, which led to their deprival of joy of excellence and success, and to announce the results in a manner that befits them as their original right.

He called for the need to hold accountable the perpetrators behind this exclusion of students of Al-Nour School for Boys and Girls. It is worth mentioning that Al-Nour School’s best students are: Abdul Aziz Samir Al-Otaibi, Jouri Muhammad Al-Azmi, Abdullah Yousef Al-Utheina, Al-Jouri Muhammad Al-Azmi, Abdulaziz Sheikhoun, Abdulrahman Al-Adwani, Abdulaziz Al-Shatti, Abdel Nasser Al-Daas, Muhammad Al- Azmi, Jassem Al-Shammari, Hammoud Al-Badawi, Habib Al-Mansour, Abdulrahman Al-Odailah and Abdulrahman Ali.