The education minister has signed off a rulebook for Kuwait’s gifted schools: seventy articles across nine chapters, covering how a child is nominated, screened and admitted, what they study, how they are graded, and what happens if they fall behind.
Who it covers, and from when
It starts with the intermediate stage — grades six through nine — from the 2026/2027 school year. Other stages will be phased in by a later ministerial decision. The schools report to the Gifted Office administratively, technically and financially.
How a child gets in
Screening runs on standardised instruments measuring general mental ability, attainment and creativity, plus a personal interview. Candidates are ranked on the combined result, and places are filled to each school’s capacity. A child who passes but finds no place goes on a reserve list and is called when a seat opens.
Inside the classroom
Pupils follow the ministry’s official curriculum, plus a compulsory enrichment subject at two periods a week covering academic enrichment, applied projects, thinking skills and problem solving. Classes are capped at sixteen, and the ministry provides transport from across the country.
Marks, and the bar for staying
Enrichment is marked out of one hundred: sixty for the project, twenty for achievement in activities and competitions, twenty for thinking skills, participation, conduct and handling of equipment.
To stay enrolled a child needs a final overall percentage of at least ninety, and an enrichment mark of at least seventy-five.
If a child slips
Where a pupil’s level drops in the first term, the school must notify the parent, refer the case to its gifted-care committee, and put a documented remedial plan in place with the psychologist, the social worker and the teachers. Enrolment is not decided until the end of the school year, and only after those steps are exhausted. The parent may appeal. If the programme turns out not to suit the child, they move to a general school without being recorded as having failed or repeated the year.
Rights written into the text
A pupil is entitled to a programme matched to their ability, to academic, psychological and social guidance, to privacy of their records, and to a review of how their projects and marks were assessed. A parent may see the academic and enrichment programme, the activities and the conditions for staying enrolled before the child is registered, and may follow the cumulative file afterwards.
The rulebook also gives the pupil ownership of the projects and inventions they produce, with the Gifted Office responsible for securing those rights where intellectual property or a patent arises.
Photo: a card made by Kuwait One, over a school yard, carrying the state emblem and the name of the Ministry of Education.
Source: Ministry of Education, via Al-Anba and Al-Rai, 16 September 2026.
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