Kuwait, has participated in international TIMSS test for many years, however, there has been little systematic effort to compile and assess changes between genders. This study attempts to look at the results of Kuwaiti students on the TIMSS mathematics assessments in general and according to gender in particular and the views of supervisors on the relatively low performance of Kuwaiti students. The study employed a mixed method approach in which data analysis of test results, IEA-issued documents, and statistics and official reports were used. Two focus group interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of nine educational supervisors from mathematics and science. The results show that the performance of Kuwaiti students in both the fourth and eighth grades was extremely low on the TIMSS mathematics assessments in general and in content areas in particular, since the first participation in 1995, even though the performance of eighth graders showed a slight improvement in 2015 in all areas. The TIMSS results also show that the higher the level of thinking that was assessed, the lower the performance of Kuwaiti students was. The data indicate that throughout all years, Kuwaiti girls outperformed boys, considering the slight improvement especially in 2015, yet both performances lagged behind international norms. Focus group transcript analysis reveals that supervisors perceived that students’ low performance on the TIMSS assessment test is related to a number of reasons as lack of interest in TIMSS test, unfamiliarity with TIMSS questions, and students’ weakness in the Arabic language. The paper concludes the need to systematically evaluate the TIMSS results, and develop interventions and a competent national curriculum in Kuwait.

Many educational centers for instructing Muslim children in the principles of Islam and the Arabic language have been established in Europe. These centers are called weekend schools; students attend these schools on the weekend to learn the Holy Qur’an in addition to Arabic language skills. The current study aimed to examine the nature of these schools and their instructional focuses. The study used a qualitative method for data collection and conducted interviews based on semi-open questions. A total of 26 participants were interviewed during the Annual Conference of the Islamic Organization Union in France in 2012. The results indicate that there is no detailed database that shows the total number or overall percentage of Muslim students who attend weekend schools in Europe. The results also show that the rate of enrollment is increasing. The results of the study confirm that most of the students are primary school students who attend these schools for only 3 to 4 hours every week. The findings show that these weekend schools face several challenges. The most important of these challenges are the weak qualifications of the teachers, inadequate curriculum, an inconvenient instructional environment, and other challenges that will be covered in this research. The researcher argues that the efforts exerted by mosques and Islamic centers to maintain the identity represented in the supplementary schools and classes called weekend schools are insufficient due to the numerous challenges that these schools are facing.

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BackgroundCoronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global pandemic on March 2020. Several measures have been attempted to contain the spread of the virus including school closures and lockdown. These measures have resulted in children staying at home with potential hazard exposure such as accidental drug or foreign body ingestions. In this study, we want to investigate the impact of COVID-19-related measures on admissions of children with accidental foreign body or drug ingestion. Methods All accidental ingestion admissions to pediatric wards at Al-Amiri hospital during the pandemic from March 2020 till February 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. They were compared with admission data from the pre-pandemic period from March 2019 till February 2020. Results There were 90 admission with accidental ingestion during the Pandemic compared to 138 admissions in the pre pandemic period. The mean age of admission during non-COVID-19 period was 3.9 ± 2.6 years, and 4.1 ± 2.9 years during pandemic period. The most common cause of accidental ingestion in children in both periods was medication ingestion. Coin ingestion was the second common cause during the pandemic compared to detergent in the pre-pandemic period. ConclusionsDespite children’s stay at home during COVID-19 pandemic, there was a reduction in hospitalization with accidental ingestion. This emphasizes the significance of family availability and constant observation of children at home as an important safety measure.

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