US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT1660

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.