Bahrain Mirror: A group of parents told Al-Wasat newspaper that their children will be denied education, due to a decision issued by the Ministry of Education that stipulates not registering children, who were born between August 31, 2011 and the end of 2011 in the public and private schools.

"The number of students to register in grade one reach 10,000 each year; however, preventing the students born in the said 4 months for next year means that one-third of these children, about 3,300, will be denied education on the orders of the ministry of education," stressed the families.

"We are not talking here about dozens and hundreds of children to be harmed. We are talking about thousands of children who will be prevented from receiving elementary education, which is stipulated by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain. We will either have to keep them home or re-register them in kindergarten which means that they would spent 4 full years [in kindergarten]," they noted.

"Why does the ministry of education insist on preventing our children from learning without explaining to their parents the reason behind this shocking decision?" they asked.

They further stated that "the new decision distributed to the schools specifies the children targeted."

It is to mention that the ministry issued a decision regarding registration of students for the scholastic year 2016-2017, stating that children born between January 1, 2010 until December 31, 2010 are only the ones allowed to enter grade one. However, children born from January 1, 2011 until August 31, 2011 will be registered in grade one for the scholastic year 2017-2018.

Arabic Version