Bahrain Mirror: Teachers in the Bahraini Ministry of Education called on the ministry "to prove their transparency" by publishing the results of the distribution of scholarships allocated to the children of employees which are offered annually by the Ministry of Education, especially after their children who "deserve these scholarships" failed to receive them.

The Ministry of Education announced the results of scholarships distribution allocated annually to the sons and daughters of its employees and said that the applicant has to be Bahraini and to have been in service of the ministry for not less than 10 consecutive years. Besides, the high school student should have achieved an average not less than 75% and been accepted in the Bahrain University or Polytechnic to study a major included in the plan of scholarships adopted by the ministry, noting that this system does not cover postgraduate students.

It further stated that the aforementioned conditions stipulate that the employee or teacher should be in service until the date of the application, pointing out that this system allows the employee or teacher to make use of this opportunity one time during his/her service in the ministry.

In this context, the teachers said that the schools directed those who fulfill these conditions to apply for their sons and daughters' scholarships, according to a notice issued by the ministry. However, when they submitted all the required documents to apply for the scholarships, they found out after requesting information from the ministry that it had announced the results of the scholarships excluding a large number of students under the pretext that they did not meet the required qualifications.

They also said "the ministry offered more than 100 scholarships over which 300 students competed in the University of Bahrain and Polytechnic", wondering why their sons and daughters have not been granted scholarships despite meeting all the conditions specified by the ministry.

They announced that the Ministry of Interior mentioned a number of reasons behind not receiving the scholarships. Some of these reasons were that the students were not accepted in the University of Bahrain or Polytechnic or they did not achieve the required points even though this wasn't listed among the conditions specified by the ministry to apply for the scholarships.
They also called on the Ministry of Education to announce the results of the distribution of scholarships on the local newspaper, proving their transparency and authenticity.

It is noteworthy that the number of employees affiliated to the Ministry of Education is 21556, including 13665 teachers. The ministry stated that the average percentage of Bahraini employees holding educational posts is 80% and almost 100% in non-educational posts. 

The Arabic Issue