Kuwait Appeals Court Upholds Ruling to Promote Student Who Missed Online Classes Due to Technical Issues

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 20: The Administrative Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling overturning a schoolgirl’s failure due to absenteeism, ordering the Ministry of Education to consider her as having passed and promote her to Grade 8.

In its ruling issued on Tuesday, Oct 20, 2026, the court’s Sixth Administrative Circuit rejected the Ministry of Education’s appeal and upheld the original judgment in favor of the student.

Lawyer Bader Mohammed Al-Dalek, who represented the student’s family, said she had been unable to attend online classes for nearly two months because of technical problems preventing her from accessing the Microsoft Teams educational platform.

Al-Dalek explained that the student was enrolled at a girls’ intermediate school under the Ahmadi Educational District during the second semester of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Amid the regional situation at the time, the Ministry of Education had adopted distance learning. However, the student encountered technical difficulties that prevented her from accessing the Teams platform for approximately two months. The application did not begin working on her device until April.

The lawyer told the court that the student’s absence from the online platform was due to circumstances beyond her control. Once she was able to log in, she promptly completed and submitted her outstanding academic requirements.

He added that the exceptional circumstances prevailing during that period had prevented the student from explaining the technical problem at the time it occurred.

The court upheld the lower court’s decision, effectively overturning the student’s failure on attendance grounds and requiring the Ministry of Education to recognize her as having passed and advance her to Grade 8.