The International Schools Review Forum

For all those contemplating Kuwait, beware the term 'bilingual' in the School's name.

When I trained at Uni we learned that a bilingual curriculum was where students studied each subject in equal measure in both languages. I doubt this happens anywhere in Kuwait really.

When you consider that the kids usuall have :

English, Science, History, Geography, Maths, Social Studies, PE, Art, Music, IT AND in addition Arabic and Religion, all in an 8 period ( often ) day, how is it humanly possible to cover the entire curriculum, in equal measure, in both languages and finish it in a year?

Answer: impossible.

In reality, for newly arrives 'bilingual' means- we teach Arabs and WE speak English, lol

I'm familiar with several of the bilingual schools, and their curriculum is like this:

English-language: English, Science, Math, Computer, Art, Sports

Arabic-language: Arabic, Islamic Studies, Social Studies, National Studies. (All of those use the Ministry of Education books, like the government schools.) In the Islamic-oriented schools, there are also Quran classes to supplement the standard Islamic Studies curriculum.

Even in Kuwait University, Science, Math, Engineering, Medicine, Business Administration, etc. are taught in English, so the kids in the English-language and bilingual schools have a big advantage, whether they want to go to university in Kuwait or they want to study overseas (which the Kuwaitis can do at government expense if their grades are good enough).