KUWAIT: The Ministry of Education (MoE) is planning to tighten up its regulations against exam cheating for middle and high school pupils with new measures to prevent pupils from using smart phones during exams to stop them cheating . "The Ministry of Education finds itself obliged to take necessary steps in order to cope with technological advances and prevent the educational process from being damaged through the misuse of iPhones and other handheld devices.

MoE Assistant Undersecretary for State Education Muna Al-Lughani told reporters following a meeting with directors of the ministry's six educational directorates. Whilst no reports have been received of pupils cheating by the use of smart phones during last month's finals exams, the new step comes as a precautionary measure to ensure that the possibility of student cheating is minimized, the official explained.

On another issue, Al-Lughani indicated that the delegation which recently travelled to Tunisia to recruit new teachers for Kuwait's state schools for the upcoming 2011-12 academic year has completed its work, recruiting 36 female Physical Education teachers and nine female English language teachers. The senior MoE official further explained that the other 21 female English teachers required by the ministry will be recruited in Egypt, where another delegation of ministry officials is set to visit next week.


On that subject, the head of the MoE's recruitment delegation to Egypt Badriya Al-Khaldi revealed that 230 teachers have already signed contracts with the ministry, while another 327 others of the 1,828 who applied for the posts have been given preliminary approval. Amongst the Egyptian teachers already hired during the most recent trip by the delegation were 52 Mathematics teachers, 43 music teachers, 32 Physical Education teachers and 15 English language teachers.

In other news, the Hawally Educational Directorate has reportedly devised a plan to detect what it described as negative phenomena and practices found in schools such as smoking, drugs and 'gender identity disorders,' and find solutions to these problems.

This was revealed by the directorate head Muna Al-Sallal during a recently published interview, in which she explained that students guilty of such transgressions would be subjected to penalties including suspension and dismissal if they don't respond positively with the treatment provided by the ministry to resolve their problems. - Agencies