Parent's Review of American International School of Kuwait in Hawalli, Kuwait

What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)

American International School of Kuwait

In what town or city is this school located?

Hawalli

How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)

American

What grade levels are represented at this school?

KG1-12th

How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)

parents, bus, many by drivers (this is why there is no parking spaces available for parents to go into the school for communication of teachers/parents)

How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?

Before accreditation the school seemed to be trying to bring in many choices of extra-curricular activities and for the most part, they were free. However, after the school moved from Surra to Hawally and got accredited, they seemed to of lost their many objectives.

What has this school done to help your child transition from the curriculum in your home country into the curriculum in your new country? Are there programs to prepare your child for repatriation?

I had three children at AIS. One graduated from there and continued on at AUC in Egypt and the other one would have been a senior this year. I moved back home to the good old USA and she seems to be doing well academically here. I think they need to bring in more electives as choices over there for the children to have a broad view of what they would like to study in the future.

How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?

I don't think there is much communication done at all with the parents and the teachers of the school. I find very little communication done at all. The high school can not keep a councilor and many children that need help choosing their classes are being misdirected or mislead. The teachers don't care to communicate with each other on homework assignments, tests, quizzes, and the kids end up sometimes with 4 or 5 tests in one day.

What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?

Most of the American schools that are run in Kuwait are all done through what the Arabs call "Wasta". It's not what you know but who you know. At one time, this school was headed in the right direction but somewhere it got off track. I would suggest that parents start getting on the accreditation teams back about checking in on American Schools who don't deserve this title just because they're being run by American or Canadian heads. Since the Kuwaiti Ministry is not getting involved in the private schools education anymore, then it should all be up to the accreditation team to put a stop to what's going on inside by threatening to take away the accreditation if not held up to specific standards. Parents need to be more demanding!

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