KUWAIT CITY, Aug 5: With the approval of the Cabinet’s Education Committee of the Ministry of Education’s plan to resume studies according to the regular education system in two periods, the road back to school in the coming academic year has become clear, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting informed sources. They revealed that the committee has made some amendments and recommendations to the plan of the Ministry of Education, most notably the change in the working hours to start the first period at 7:30am instead of 7:00am, and increasing the time for students to leave between the two periods to 30 minutes instead of 10 minutes, such that the Ministry of Education will reschedule the second period, which was planned to start at 11:10 am.

The sources stressed that the ministerial committee recommended government agencies to coordinate for assisting the Ministry of Education in implementing the plan, such as the Ministry of Interior and the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate to regulate traffic in front of schools. They said the committee stipulated that the Ministry of Education should not increase the number of students in one class to 20 in public or private schools, indicating that the ministry is considering adding the requirement for students who are not vaccinated or who have received only one dose of the vaccine to undergo a PCR test on a weekly basis and submit negative results in order to enter schools.

The sources said, “The Minister of Education Dr. Ali Al-Mudhaf affirmed during the meeting that the decision to work in two shifts will be reconsidered, and work will be done to return to normal school hours if there is improvement in the country’s health situation, if there is increase in the vaccination rate, and if community immunity has been achieved”. Meanwhile, the Minister of Health Dr. Basil Al-Sabah highlighted his keenness to increase the number of vaccinated people in the coming period and make a significant acceleration in the vaccination process, as well as give students and teachers the highest priority in obtaining the vaccine.