Kuwait Court Overturns Grade Repetition Decision for Student
Court rules student should pass after technical issue blocked online classes
A Kuwaiti court has overturned an Education Ministry decision that forced a middle school student to repeat the academic year after a technical issue stopped her from joining online classes.
The Administrative Court ordered the ministry to recognise that the student passed the year and move her up to Grade 8.
Technical issue kept student away from online lessons
The case happened during the second semester, when the Kuwait Education Ministry was using Microsoft Teams for remote learning due to exceptional circumstances.
Other students continued attending online classes, but this student could not access the platform for more than two months because of a technical fault. The problem reportedly continued until April.
The student and her family later took the case to court.
Her lawyer said that once the technical issue was fixed, she completed and submitted the required assignments and school work.
He also said the situation made it hard for the student to inform school officials about the problem while it was happening.
Ministry counted absence as unjustified
Even though the technical problem was not caused by the student, the Education Ministry treated her absence as unjustified.
She also received a poor academic assessment, which led to her failing the school year.
The family asked the court to step in, saying the student should not be punished for a technical issue that stopped her from accessing remote learning.
Court cancels failing result
After reviewing the evidence and the circumstances of the technical fault, the Administrative Court cancelled the ministry’s decision.
The court also cancelled the poor academic assessment and the failing result.
It ordered the Education Ministry to officially recognise that the student completed the academic year successfully and promote her to Grade 8.
This means the student will not have to repeat the school year because of the long technical issue that prevented her from joining online classes.
AI contributed to the creation of this article.