Education Ministry grants principals authority to approve exit permits for expat teachers

The Ministry of Education has given authority for the principals of schools to approve exit permits for expatriate teachers and staff. This measure comes as part of the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to streamline administrative procedures and enhance service efficiency for both teaching and administrative personnel.

The Ministry announced that visits to the educational district are no longer necessary to process exit permit applications. Instead, school administrations can now issue approvals directly via the Integrated System, following recent collaboration with the Civil Service Commission to fully link and update the data for all non-Kuwaiti educators, reports Al-Rai daily.

Under the updated process:

• Employees must obtain Form No. 1 from their direct supervisor.
• Leave permit requests must be submitted through the “Sahel” app.
• Requests will be reviewed and approved electronically by the school administration through the Civil Service Bureau’s integrated platform.

The Ministry emphasized that this step is intended to reduce bureaucratic delays, promote administrative discipline, and ensure smooth implementation of policy changes.

Acting Assistant Undersecretary for General Education Mansour Al-Dhafiri issued a formal directive to all educational districts and the Religious Education Department, instructing them to stop referring exit permit requests to district offices.

All approvals will now be handled directly by school administrations, based on their newly granted authority.

The Ministry has urged all schools to adhere strictly to the updated procedures to support effective governance and better serve Kuwait’s educational workforce.