The government provides free education at all levels to Kuwaitis. Certain groups of non-Kuwaitis may place their children in government schools, but demand exceeds the places available. Tuition is in Arabic.
Private schools were established to accommodate the increasing numbers of expatriates working in Kuwait. Arabic, Indian, American, Pakistani, British, Japanese, French, German and other schools were established to accommodate children of expatriates from these nationalities. Arabic private schools received generous government subsidies amounting to 5.6 million K.D. as well as land to and free textbooks.
Most expatriates are not eligible for free education and will have to register their children at private schools. Tuition is available at all levels and covers most language groupings and national curricula. British and American schools are the most numerous and their students reach high standards in their exams.
All private schools come under the supervion of the Ministry of Education, which sets the fee level, inspects the school and also arbitrates cases of complaints.
The ministry of education had, for more than a quarter of a century, been concerned with teaching adults and eradicating illiteracy of those who were not provided with formal education in the past. The rate if illiteracy decreased considerably especially after a law issued in 1981 providing for making illiteracy eradication compulsory. There are a number of commercial organizations offering tuition to adults in the sphere of languages or computing. The university also offers adults' courses and students attending illiteracy eradication centres can carry on with their university education.
Special education
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Education had paid a considerable attention to disabled children and provided special education for them. This type of special education was expanded to include children with visual different visual disabilities, deaf children and children with hearing difficulties, mentally retarded children and children with physical disability.
University education
The University of Kuwait was established in 1966 to provide the country with the required different skills and professions in several fields. When established in 1966, the number of students was 418; in the late nineties the number of male and female students was 17.419 studying at ten faculties and centre and tens of departments; the budget was estimated at KD 58.280.000.
Applied education and training
The state established the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training to supervise and plan applied education and training in several fields including principal education, commercial studies, hygienic sciences, technological studies as well as technical and vocational training in several fields.