EDUCATION REFORM: NEW KUWAITI TEXTBOOKS BY 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001660

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV OEXC KISL KU
SUBJECT: EDUCATION REFORM: NEW KUWAITI TEXTBOOKS BY 2006


(SBU) SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED--PROTECT ACCORDINGLY

Ref: 2004 Kuwait 003855


1. (SBU) Summary: Ambassador, accompanied by CAO, met
with Kuwait's Minister of Higher Education Dr. Rashid Al-
Hamed on April 9, 2005. Discussion focused on reform of
the educational system and textbooks. In previous meetings
with Emboffs, ministry officials have said that the
Ministry's strategy on textbook reform is to get out of the
textbook publishing business, with the introduction of new
textbooks in math, science and English by September 2006
or, at the latest, 2007. New Arabic-language, history,
religion and social science textbooks would be introduced
after that. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Recent Kuwaiti press reports have focused on
Ministry of Education plans for reform of its education
curricula and textbooks. Textbooks are being vetted with
the aim of ensuring more tolerant and less anti-Western
content in the Arabic, social science, history and religion
textbooks. Ministry officials say the need for education
reform is primarily to improve Kuwaiti education and the
quality of teachers in Kuwait as well as to lessen
potentially inflammatory content in textbooks.

Textbook Reform
--------------


3. (SBU) The Minister (and Ministry Undersecretary, Dr.
Humoud Al-Saadoun) have described the Ministry's strategy
as to get out of the textbook-publishing business. The
first round of textbook reforms are intended to introduce
new Arabic-language textbooks into the schools by September
2006 or 2007 in math and science, from Harcourt publishing.
Kuwait and Harcourt are doing this in cooperation with
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. They are working together with
the publisher to ensure that the Harcourt-published Arabic
texts are culturally appropriate for the Gulf.
Concurrently, English teaching texts would come from
Longman publications. New Arabic, history, religion and
social science textbooks would be completed later because,
in the Kuwaiti view, there are no suitable international
publishers in these fields. Also, the Ministry officials
say that these subjects are more sensitive and reform of
such books will need more time. It is also possible,
according to the Kuwaitis, that the Emirates and Yemen will
join Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the first round of
new textbook acquisition in English, math and science
through the Harcourt and Longman publishing houses.

Religious Texts
--------------


4. (SBU) While not going into details, the Minister
conceded to the Ambassador that there is a need to review
and revise religious textbooks for content which may
promote ideas of extremism and which, more generally,
promotes "bad relations" with other, non-Muslim, religious
groups and societies. Likewise, the Minister said that
some religious texts are offensive to students from
Kuwait's Shi'a community. The Minister told the Ambassador
that the Ministry is interested in balancing the religious
sensitivities of the Sunni and Shi'a communities by
removing the stresses on the differences in belief between
the two groups. In the categories of Sunni-Shi'a as well
as Muslim - non-Muslim relations, the Minister stressed the
importance of carefully selecting which authors should be
chosen for religious education, as religious textbooks
reflect the biases of their authors.

Increasing the Number of Kuwaiti Students in the U.S.
-------------- --------------


5. (SBU) The Ambassador advised the Minister that
increasing the numbers of Kuwaitis studying in the United
States is a high mission priority. The Minister said that
he supports the Ambassador's request that the Ministry of
Higher Education allow AMIDEAST to hold occasional
voluntary presentations in Kuwaiti secondary schools for
students and parents on educational opportunities in the
U.S. This pledge followed a similar pledge made to the DCM
by the Undersecretary of the Education Ministry the
previous week. Though no such briefings have taken place
as of April, 2005, post is following-up with the Ministry
of Education and AMIDEAST to ensure that one or two such
sessions take place this semester.

Comment
--------------


6. (SBU) Kuwait since the 1960's and 1970's has become
much more conservative as Islamist politicians have
increased their profile and power through the National
Assembly and other segments of society. In this context,
PAS contacts in the intellectual community describe
education reform as the most necessary field in which to
reverse the level of conservatism in society--especially
among targeted youth. In addition to the important
decision made by the GOK and the Education Ministry to
proceed with textbook reform, the Ministry of Awqaf and
Islamic Affairs has undertaken educational and training
programs for imams to try to further prevent creeping
Islamist extremism in Kuwait. PAS Kuwait is working with
ECA and the Islamic Affairs Ministry to put together a
Single-Country Program for FY-2005 to send 5 to 7 imams to
visit the U.S. to get a better understanding, first-hand,
of U.S. society and values. End comment.