Al-Rai al-Aam: Kuwait denies American pressures behind changing educational curricula

The Kuwaiti foreign minister Sheikh Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah yesterday stressed that Kuwait will proceed to changing its educational curricula and developing them, and he denied that this pursue was made at a request or pressure from the USA.

In an interview with the Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Aam issued yesterday, al-Ahmad said that the Kuwaiti government asked the minister of education since two months and there is now work, or a workshop at the ministry of education to develop the curricula so as to cope with the time and its changes," giving no explanations to what extent such "a development" will have on the religious subjects taught in the current curricula.

But he added, replying to a question on whether this measure came as a request from the US "we do not accept any side to impose on us what we follow up in our internal policy because there are certain local indicators we follow up in this regard and we have national and specialized professionals we ask to know the extent of the need for a change or amendment or development, not only in the curricula but also in all walks to development."

Worthy mentioning that Kuwait has been witnessing a heated debate on the religious subjects which are currently taught, and to what extent has the educational ciricula has been responsible for the "extremism" of certain trends and individuals.

During the few past weeks, Kuwait witnessed a series of attacks against American targets and soldiers that embarrassed the government which has on its territories some 10,000 American soldiers since the second Gulf war under the pretext of preserving its security against a new Iraqi "invasion."