As part of the Ministry of Education’s commitment to organizing educational procedures and developing services provided to learners and their parents, in order to enhance the clarity of regulations, facilitate the completion of transactions electronically, and ensure the application of procedures according to clear and organized foundations, the Minister of Education, Engineer Sayed Jalal Al-Tabtabai, issued a ministerial decision regarding the regulation of the conditions and mechanism for transferring Arab learners to non-Arabic speaking learner classes (AFL) in schools with a foreign curriculum, in order to regulate the procedures for submitting, studying and approving applications, and to determine the eligible cases and the documents required to complete the transfer process.

The Ministry of Education explained in a statement that the decision specified a number of cases in which it is permissible to transfer an Arab learner to classes for non-Arabic speaking learners. These include the children of diplomats, an Arab learner with a non-Arab mother, a learner who has spent no less than three years outside the State of Kuwait and has not previously studied in Arab schools, in addition to a learner who has an approved learning disability report from the Public Authority for Disability Affairs, and a report from the competent committee to assess his language level, as well as those who have previously obtained approval to join classes for non-Arabic speaking learners.

The ministry explained that submitting and following up on the transfer request is done electronically through the Ministry of Education website, on the AFL platform. The procedure begins with the parent submitting the student's transfer request and attaching the required documents and certificates. The request is then referred electronically to the General Directorate of Private Education to complete the review work, verify the extent to which the conditions are met, and obtain the necessary approvals according to the approved procedures.

She added that the application status appears to the parent electronically through the system after the review, approval and consent process for the application is completed, while the approval certificate is sent electronically to the concerned school, in preparation for completing the procedures for transferring the learner and registering him in the classes for learners who do not speak Arabic.

The Ministry of Education indicated that organizing these procedures electronically comes within the framework of its efforts to facilitate services provided to parents, and to organize the application process in an integrated manner from its submission until the completion of review, approval and consent procedures, in a way that saves time and effort and enhances the efficiency of procedures.

The ministry stated that the guardian must, when submitting the application, attach a copy of the father and mother’s passport, a copy of the learner’s civil ID, the learner’s last two academic certificates, and a certificate “To Whom It May Concern” from the school he is registered with, in addition to an acknowledgment and undertaking from the guardian to bear all the consequences of the learner not studying the Arabic language curriculum.

The ministry confirmed that the decision set the time frame for submitting transfer requests, so that a student who meets one of the specified conditions is entitled to submit a transfer request to non-Arabic speaking classes within one academic year only from the date of his enrollment in foreign schools within the State of Kuwait, provided that the acceptance of those wishing to transfer to these classes is limited to the fourth grade of primary school and the grades following it.

The Ministry of Education also stressed that organizing the mechanism for submitting and studying transfer requests aims to ensure the clarity of procedures and to verify that applicants meet the specified conditions and controls before approval, in addition to enabling the parent to follow up on the status of the request electronically and complete the procedures with the school after approval is issued, without the need for in-person review.

The ministry stated that the decision also stipulated the cancellation of all decisions and publications that conflict with its provisions, and that its provisions shall be implemented from the date of its issuance by all competent authorities.