Tinting of Driving School Car Windows
In the 1960s, Khaled Al-Masoud, the Minister of Education, changed the ministry’s name to “Education.” Yet, sixty years later, we have failed in both education and schooling. Education is the cornerstone of any developmental renaissance, as evidenced in 1912, when enlightened citizens decided to introduce “modern education” to the country, replacing the traditional kuttabs (Quranic schools) run by “Mullahs.”
Efforts to establish a modern school faced resistance, and many refused to contribute financially to its construction. After considerable hardship, the necessary funds were raised, but the school’s troubles with forces of backwardness did not end. After a while, a number of parents withdrew their children from the school, objecting to the inclusion of subjects such as “English” and “Geography” in the curriculum. School revenues declined, and it ceased operations for a period.
What is happening in Kuwait today—resistance to curriculum development and rejection of teacher retraining—mirrors events from a century ago, under the pretext of fearing that students would be influenced by deviant ideas or taught geography, which promotes the concept of a spherical Earth! Those were their excuses then, and they have now replaced them with similar ones, namely, fear for religious beliefs, unaware that the fears of 1912 were misplaced and that there is no justification for their current anxieties. Even customs and traditions from a century ago have completely changed, yet Kuwait remains, and faith remains in hearts and souls.
The state of education, particularly in government schools, is disheartening. The problem cannot be “solved” by appointing a doctor, an engineer, or even a rocket scientist to head the ministry. The process is far more complex. We have no choice but to engage an international body or a Western government and request that they put education on the right track, without allowing any party to interfere. For instance, one cannot commission a world-renowned structural engineer to design a skyscraper and then intervene, demanding the use of stones from “our sea” to build its walls!
Education is not a car that we import from abroad and then decide to tint its windows under the guise of “household customs and traditions.” It is a critical national plan; failure in it means continued backwardness, and inevitably, its intensification. The consequences of any current plan will be catastrophic, and the scale of the disaster will not become publicly apparent until a decade or two from now.
Since we have no time to continue repeating failed experiments, the government must remove all obstacles and hand over reform to the appropriate entity. Current indicators, including recent appointments and promotions in the Ministry of Education, clearly show that we are “neither cured nor healing,” and deterioration will likely continue.
A friend facilitated my meeting with a European delegation visiting the country to promote a specific teaching methodology. I pointed out to the delegation head that he must possess sufficient courage to frankly inform our officials that their educational program will inevitably fail if any party attempts to interfere in order to manipulate or alter it to fit “customs and traditions.” No educational program can succeed unless it is implemented as is, free from the whims and desires of certain individuals.
The current teaching method, which relies on rote learning and memorization, has been abandoned by “all advanced countries in the world.” It is completely incompatible with the modern educational approach, which is based on encouraging students to ask questions, think critically, and analyze, all of which contribute to enhancing their cognitive abilities. This requires proper preparation and training for teachers, mandating that they hold at least a master’s degree, while granting them academic freedom and social and material respect, after ensuring they are not affiliated with any political or religious entity.
In conclusion, I sense that something is being prepared, but in the end, the mountain will not deliver a mouse. The country will pay a heavy price.
Ahmed Al-Sarraff
