Ministry lowers standards for hiring teachers due to low numbers applications

KUWAIT: Education Minister Hamed Al-Azmi issued a decision forming a special committee to examine, interview and hire teachers from Tunisia from July 15 to 19, said informed sources, noting that the committee will be headed by the Capital education area director Badriya Al-Khaldi. The sources added that Azmi issued another decision on forming a similar committee headed by Ahmadi educational area director Waleed Al-Oumi to do the same during the same period in Jordan.

In another educational concern, informed sources said the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) recently handed over nine newly-built schools in various areas to the Ministry of Education (MoE) so that the schools could be opened by the beginning of the new academic year. The sources added that the new schools will need around 1,000 teachers and administrative staff members, and that MoE was awaiting approval from the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to send delegations abroad to hire teachers.

The sources added that in view of the low numbers of local applications, MoE exempted applying English and French teachers from the experience condition and lowered this condition from two to only one year of experience for various scientific subjects' teachers. The sources explained that MoE's assistant undersecretary for public education Fatima Al-Kandari had officially requested the exemption so that enough teaching staff members, including non-Kuwaitis, GCC nationals and bedoons, could be hired.

7,000 pilgrims

Head of the hajj convoys union Ahmad Al-Dowaihi said that over 7,000 citizens and expats have so far registered to perform hajj this year, or 80-85 percent of the convoys' capacity. Dowaihi added that the first flights would leave for Saudi Arabia on Aug 14 and that the first return flight would arrive on Aug 26. Dowaihi stressed that special arrangements had been made with the civil aviation authorities to avoid the luggage problem that happened last year.

New power plant

The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) explained that the third phase of the south Zour power plant covers an area of 50,000 sq m and that the project scheduled to be concluded by June 2019 will cost KD 62 million. Civil engineer Mohammad Al-Jowaisri said the plant will cover Kuwait's need of electricity by adding 250 megawatts to the national grid capacity by using environment-friendly technologies.

Separately, MEW Undersecretary Mohammed Boshehri stressed that co-ops would be treated like the commercial sector in terms of the new electricity tariffs because they have commercial licenses. "Thus, they will pay 5 fils instead of 2 fils per kilowatt and KD 2 per 1,000 gallons of water instead of 800 fils," he stressed. Speaking during a meeting at the Kuwait Union of Consumer Co-operative Societies, Boshehri said that in view of the extreme heat of 49 degrees centigrade recorded on Sunday, MEW registered the highest rate of power consumption of 13,780 megawatts, adding that the predicted maximum consumption during the summer would reach 14,500 megawatts, while the grid reserves reach 16,000 megawatts. Boshehri warned that using water to wash vehicles or houses' inner and outer yards is wasteful and legally punishable.

By A Saleh