Ministry cracks whip on schools

Manama : The Education Ministry has suspended the registrations of 10 private schools as a penalty for violating government stipulations regarding the safety and security of students.
The suspensions will continue  until these institutions rectify the violations that harm the students.
These schools were repeatedly warned against gross violations of government stipulations by the Education Ministry.
A statement issued by the Ministry claimed that the schools were notified more than once about the violations but did not respond to the Ministry’s warnings.
“As a result, registration for the school year 2017-2018 has been suspended. More deterrent action will be taken against the schools to ensure the protection of students and parents,” the Ministry said.
“These violations harm the students’ interests and their rights to receive quality education in return for the fees paid by the parents,” the Education Ministry’s statement said, adding that these schools completely disregarded the safety and security requirements of the schools.

Safety, security violated    

According to the Ministry, the schools violated security and safety requirements stipulated for buildings, constructed additional buildings without the Ministry’s permission, did not adher to the approved curricula and the legal recruitment procedures and taught subjects that are not permitted by the Ministry.
The Ministry added that the detection of the violations comes as a result of the continuous inspection visits to private educational establishments by teams of the concerned departments in the Ministry.

Parents worried
The Ministry’s announcement immediately went viral on social networks. However, several schools denied the Ministry’s accusations and criticised it, claiming that they were not notified or given the chance to defend their institutions.
DT News obtained a copy of a message circulated by Creativity Private School administration on What’sApp, claiming that the teams’ visits were conducted during the past two weeks and no warnings or notifications were given to the school’s administration.The administration affirmed that the school is committed to the ministry’s academic and safety norms, and that the warning and the statement are “unfair to the school”. On the other hand, parents expressed their concerns over the decision and how it may affect their children.
“We are worried about our children’s future. In case the schools are shutdown, where will we enrol our children. Will there be any vacancy in other schools. Suddenly changing the school environment will affect the children. Some of these schools have been operating for almost three decades, how come the Ministry only noticed the violations now. Some parents paid the school fees for the next year in advance. Who will compensate them,” said a Bahraini mother of two.

28,000 Bahraini students in private schools

Education Minister Dr. Majid Al Nuaimi stated recently that more than 28,000 Bahraini children are studying in private schools.
In his reply to parliamentary questions on the matter, Dr. Al Nuaimi clarified that the latest figures show that 28,859 Bahraini students are enrolled in private schools across the Kingdom.
More related information will be discussed during the upcoming weekly meeting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.