Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini Parliament's financial and economic affairs committee member Jalal Kadhem submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Education for imposing fees on foreign students entering public schools by billing a draft law to amend some provisions of the 27/2005 law on education.

Kadhem said that Bahrain "faces a serious economic crisis due to the drop of international oil prices to its lowest levels, which Bahrain did not expect previously; this lead to an increase in the kingdom's general expenses due to increasing public bodies and governmental projects in the coming years. In the face of this massive problem that Bahrain is witnessing and amid the scarcity of financial resources and decrease of oil income, it was necessary to find new sources for the country's treasury before Bahrain's ranking gets worse and leads to a decline in the market value of the Dinar and worsens the Bahraini citizen's livelihood. As taking rapid, effective and serious measures is very important to face any financial crisis, this proposal comes to amend the provisions of 27/2005 law on education by amending article 7 so that the free of charge education in public schools becomes restricted only to Bahraini and GCC state students. However, the proposal suggested imposing 50 BD per month in return for educational services currently offered for free to the foreign students. According to the Ministry of Education, each school seat costs 3000 BD yearly, which is a considerable amount of money if we counted all the foreign students entering public schools. This proposal aims at increasing the country's revenues, redirecting government expenditure and putting an end to public money wastage."

Arabic Issue