Teachers slam long-term disruption, agree to resume studies end of June – ARAB TIMES

KUWAIT CITY, June 1: A number of academic professors and deans of colleges at Kuwait University have unanimously agreed to resume studies at the end of June, denouncing the long term disruption, which is currently witnessed in no other university across the globe- except Kuwait.

They reaffirmed the university’s readiness and existence of adequate infrastructure to operate distance education, while the ongoing training of teachers and students will end within two weeks at most. Participants of an electronic symposium organized by Dr Ahmad Al- Rashdan via live broadcast on You- Tube titled “A seminar on colleges’ plans to resume studies at Kuwait University,” stressed that the long interruption of study and setting of obstacles will contribute to the deterioration of the university and colleges’ evaluation.

They agreed that all colleges are ready to transfer to distance education while the current laws and regulations do not oppose the system and all rights are reserved through the existing public laws that protect intellectual property and others. Acting Dean of the College of Life Sciences Dr Ahmad Al-Lafisaid the College of Life Sciences is ready to resume studies in the month of August.

He explained that training of faculty members will be in the first two weeks of June, and in the first two weeks of July, any problems related to the electronic programs will be resolved. He said each faculty member will be responsible for training their students, so on August 9, everyone will be ready to resume studies.

He explained that the college council, before the total ban in the country, approved the work of the laboratories as they will be conducted via video for students to write the reports on this basis. The field training will be an experiment, so the student must diagnose the disease and provide a treatment that suits the experience, and God willing, it will be easy.

Al-Lafipointed out that when we see colleagues talking about resuming studies, we say, Praise be to God, so we have no problems asking: When do we resume studies through distance education? We have been in college for almost four years, and 98 percent of the professors have electronically activated accounts and 90 percent of professors use the “Blackboard” program, while all students in the college use this program, and the college was fully prepared even before the current crisis.

Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University Dr Raed Burasli said, “We started our meetings at the college after the National Day last March when we discussed all possibilities for completing the academic year and we formed more than one committee and some of them are still working so far, indicating seven committees are currently working, including the committee for distance education and tests, joint committee, the committee for recording materials and student matters, laboratory committee, safety committee, and the media committee. These committees have been operating since March.”

On August 9, everything will be ready and the college can return to work to begin student training completely, he said, denouncing the suspension of studies at Kuwait University. He stressed that Kuwait University is the only institute in the world that has yet to complete its educational programs for the second semester.

For his part, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Research at the College of Sharia Dr Abdullah Al-Ajmi said the College of Sharia has begun the process of training faculty members. He also said committees have been formed for that purpose with the development of alternative plans. The college prepared a plan to resume studies last May in anticipation of unforeseen circumstances with e-business infrastructure in place. He added the college has made a plan on two simultaneous and asynchronous education, and for that reason, many committees were formed for tests and training.

The plan was presented to the university president, he noted. There are technical committees working toward the testing mechanism, preparation of scientific materials, facilities, and safety measures. Students will take the paper test in person after obtaining approval to use the College of Education buildings in Kaifan, while alternatives are available if there is any objection by the health authorities in the country


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