MORE than 265,000 school, kindergarten and nursery students will be back in their seats for the new academic year across Bahrain on Wednesday.
A total of 155,000 students, including 15,000 entering school for the first time, will receive education at 209 government schools, while 90,000 students will start the new academic year in 80 private schools.
Meanwhile, 21,000 children – 17,000 in kindergartens and 4,000 in nurseries – will also start at 245 educational venues ranging from independent institutions to private schools.
Teachers are expected to be back on Sunday after a two-month summer break.
The new statistics were revealed by Education Minister Dr Mohammed Mubarak Juma at a Press conference at the Education Ministry’s headquarters in Isa Town yesterday.
“We have been closely following up on all the preparations for the new academic year to ensure that students return swiftly to their classrooms,” he said.
“There are massive efforts to ensure all facilities in the schools are ready for the students,” he added.
“There is ongoing maintenance work that started on August 15 in partnership with the Works Ministry to ensure that schools are ready for the new academic year.
“The 155,000 government school students will be using 5,000 classrooms in the 209 schools.”
He said that the number of children accepted to grade one has increased to 15,000 as 5,000 students have secured a seat following the decision to accept students who don’t complete six years of age until December 31 rather than the first day of school in September.
“We are expecting to get more students enrolled in grade one as many families remain abroad during the summer,” said the minister.
“There are parents who still believe that their children should wait a year before going to school and we don’t want to force them; they have time to change their minds.
“Whether we want to expand to January, meaning five months rather than four from September to December, is subject to intensive policy study, as we don’t want parents to come and say let’s add February 1, 2 and so on.”
The minister pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic had its toll on students, mainly grade one and two, with assessment tests showing slight learning loss.
“It is a cumulative process that starts from grade one to 12 and the moment there is a broken link in the sequence, the whole build-up gets affected,” he said.
“In our case and after the online education, which was high standard during the pandemic, assessment tests showed slight loss, that we needed to fix.
“Bahrain takes part in many international educational assessments and competitions as it gives us an indication of where our students actually are.”
Meanwhile, under-secretary for policies, strategies and performance Nawal Al Khater said a checklist has been ticked green for all government schools.
“We have checked and assessed all air-conditioners in schools, carried out maintenance on 30,000 ACs, repaired 5,000 ACs and installed 480 new ones under the supervision of the Works Ministry,” she said.
“Also, we have conducted preventative maintenance in schools – electrical, electronic and plumbing.
“General cleaning is ongoing in all schools, while we have increased cleaners on campus during the school day to ensure a pleasant educational atmosphere.”
She added 11,000 new student chair/desk combos have also been brought to schools.
“We have provided 4,014 computers and 408 laptops to schools, while accounts on Microsoft 365 have been launched.
“The ministry has printed more than two million books, uploaded the soft copy of all of them, while also reusing the existing texts brought back by students.”
mohammed@gdnmedia.bh
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