In a recent announcement, the head of the Parliamentary Committee on Values and Negative Phenomena, MP Muhammad Hayef, stated that the committee has completed the law to mobilize social workers in public schools and raise the financial advantages to make the profession appealing to Kuwaitis. According to a local paper, the committee has also completed other laws related to the educational institution, such as fighting cheating in schools, exam leak outs and addressing poor educational attainment.
According to Hayef, the committee has been preparing the specialists’ law, as it is valuable in solving students’ problems, such as family, delinquency, or educational underachievement.
He added that a specialist has an active role in preparing students to be good generations, if they work in state institutions, stating that setting criteria for selecting social workers should be done, and only those who are qualified for the job are accepted.
Moreover, Hayef and deputies, Dr. Muhammad Al-Huwaila, Hamad Al-Obaid, Mubarak Al-Tasha and Faris Al-Otaibi, submitted a proposal for a law to establish a section for social workers in various educational levels in government schools, supervised by a chief of specialists in schools, religious institutes and kindergartens and raise the proficiency of social workers, as well as increase their salaries. The proposed law also specified the covered job levels for social workers, the conditions for their employment and their financial rewards, which range between 450 and 700 dinars according to academic certificates and years of experience. It also included activating the role of social workers in public and private schools and encouraging Kuwaitis to engage in this job.
In addition, the proposal also included allocating a level of study for each student in the three educational stages in all government schools, religious institutes and kindergartens, with a social worker supervising them. The social worker will follow up each student’s educational file for his social, psychological and behavioral status.
The tasks of the social worker will include, based on the proposal, helping students who experience problems that hinder their benefit from school programs and services, and addressing cases that have a direct impact on achieving the social function of the school, such as frequent absences, tardiness, skipping classes, sick leaves and others. The duties will also cover examining cases that need economic aid, examining social, psychological, religious, behavioral, moral, educational and health problems, transfer cases that schools are unable to address to the competent bodies, institutions and organizations, as well as following them up, providing guidance, and aid in urgent situations recorded by the social worker, in addition to nurturing outstanding and talented students who are underperforming, health cases and those who are eligible for aid.
