Gifted Schools... A Forgotten History!
The idea of establishing Gifted Schools in Kuwait dates back to the era of the late Amir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad, may God have mercy on him.
In the mid-1980s, while I was working in the Soviet capital, Moscow, the Cultural Attaché, the esteemed Ali Al-Halabi, may God have mercy on him, received a request to prepare a report on gifted schools in the Soviet Union, based on the directive of the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad.
I collaborated with the late Ali Al-Halabi in preparing the report, gathering information on gifted schools, their curricula, teaching and training methods, as well as the educational and pedagogical approaches used to identify gifted male and female students.
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At that time, however, the Ministry of Education did not have the opportunity to develop an executive plan and practical proposals for the project and submit them to Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad, as the Iraqi invasion prevented its completion.
After liberation, specifically in 1992, I discussed the proposal for gifted schools with the late Dr. Ahmed Al-Rubaie, who was then the Minister of Education and Higher Education. He appreciated the initiative and the importance of reviving the idea, and began reviewing it and coordinating its implementation. However, political circumstances and government priorities prevented its execution.
In 2015, former Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr. Bader Al-Eissa took the initiative to coordinate with the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) to fund the establishment of a gifted school in the Sabah Al-Salem area. The school was indeed established at a cost of approximately 20 million Kuwaiti Dinars, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University. The Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Talent and Creativity, affiliated with KFAS, oversaw the implementation of the project and its action plan.
I documented the project’s concept and history, and published part of this information in a journalistic report in 2015, coinciding with the visit of the late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad, may God have mercy on him, to the Russian capital, Moscow.
This brief historical overview may assist the Ministry of Education in documenting the origin and historical roots of the idea, as well as the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad’s interest in the gifted schools project, as part of his early vision for investing in national minds and talents. This historical background should be included in the curricula and introductory materials of the new gifted schools, to preserve educational heritage and do justice to the person who initiated the idea and contributed to transforming it, through various stages, from an early concept into a Kuwaiti educational project.
