on march 3, 1965, newspapers published on its front page a news report that a number of mps during the previous day’s session had demanded not to apply the compulsory education law for girls, saying it violated the customs and traditions prevailing at that time in the country.
after a discussion that lasted for more than two hours, the national assembly decided to reject what some members demanded, and made education compulsory for both girls and boys.
that was 55 years ago, and if the same law was put up for discussion again in the current parliament, it would also require two full hours for members to arrive at the conviction of the necessity to continue making compulsory education for both sexes, but the truth is this conviction has yet to settle in the minds of a ‘majority’.
i personally experienced the radical development, which included formal education in kuwait with the beginning of the flow of oil revenues, and the end of world war ii.
the ruling family could then keep the full oil revenues for themselves, and spend the crumbs on education, as this was not a vital aspect that deserved attention at that time, and this may still be the case for some.
but what happened is that educating young people has been the government’s priority and also the priority of the enlightened members of the al-sabah family at that time.
with big contributions from loyal citizens, they gave education the utmost importance, unlike what happened in other gulf societies. it was a clear insistence on caring for the physical and mental health of young people and pushing society towards civilization by all modern means.
it was necessary to use curricula and teaching staff from the more developed and open arab societies, which had a positive impact on all.
also, great attention was paid to the psychological and physical health of all students in public schools, by providing meals and insisted that students wear modern clothes, which were distributed to everyone for free, during summer and winter, complete with shoes, for citizens and residents of various nationalities.
the government also did not hesitate to spend on building the best schools, and some of them are still in operation for more than seventy years, to witness the seriousness of spending and honesty in construction and beautiful design.
the state was also keen to offer various incentives to bring the most experienced arab teachers – palestinians and egyptians in particular – who played a wonderful role in the area of education, and a number of them stayed in kuwait and obtained the nationality for offering the best services.
we were eagerly waiting every morning for breakfast and the ministry’s soup, especially in winter. i can still feel the taste of the school sandwiches. many students shared fruits that were only available for them in school, perhaps because their parents did not believe in their usefulness, or because they were not available in their homes because of their relatively high price.
milk and other dairy products were distributed for everyone – the same quality and quantity irrespective of whether the students were children of the general public or ruling family, children of the teachers or porters. there was no difference between one group and another, and this good feeling of equality and brotherhood continues to fill our hearts until date.
it was an enlightened leadership that thought about raising post-oil generations, and the enlightened sheikh, the late abdullah al-salem and his liberal ideas which played a big role in building modern kuwait.
commenting on what i have written that there is no hope for the advancement of a nation without modern education, a former minister of education says that education in kuwait needs attention and immunity from above. what happens to some projects that the diwan cares about after the failure of ministry of public works, calls for the diwan to include education with its interest!