High school students in foreign schools are facing a new crisis after the Ministry of Health refused to allow them to take the international written exams on which their enrollment in universities is based. According to Al-Rai, the Ministry of Health first understood the situation and granted them approval in the tests last fall, but it came back and decreased after the increase in the number of new Coronavirus infections recently.
An educational source explained to Al-Rai that failure to take exams for these students may delay their enrollment in universities until the next semester because they are linked to external academic accreditation.
Meanwhile, The President of the Federation of Foreign Schools, the owner of the International American School, Noura Al-Ghanem, confirmed to Al-Rai that there is currently coordination between the Union and the Ministry of Health on the one hand and the General Administration of Private Education on the other hand, regarding the written international exams that include a limited number of students, and the schools are linked to a global system in their conduct.
Al-Ghanim supported the Ministry of Health’s procedures regarding canceling local exams in light of the existing health situation. However, it pointed out that “international examinations have another situation whereby the aforementioned schools are linked to external systems that cannot work without them,” explaining that “the student evaluation mechanism has been approved for the current year of Written exams are accepted by the academic accreditation bodies, and there are no other alternatives, while the evaluation mechanism was during the last academic year by calculating the average scores of students.
In turn, the owner of the English school, Nouf Al-Issa, confirmed to Al-Rai that coordination is currently underway with the competent authorities to find the appropriate solution, adding, “We have not yet coordinated with the academic accreditation bodies that approved written exams in English schools for the 2020-2021 academic year./ KuwaitTimes
