ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2015

LOCAL

Sheikh Salman launches award

for youth excellence, creativity
Fingerprint attendance system exposes workers

Separating qualitative, private edu to improve learning

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 1, (KUNA):
There are plans to separate between
qualitative and private education to
allow improvements in the educational process in Kuwait, said Minister of
Education and Higher Education Dr
Bader Al-Issa Saturday.
Speaking to KUNA, Dr Al-Issa said
that part of the problem was the lack
of specialized educational staff,
adding that finding teachers capable
of using new methods to transmit

knowledge to students was an important factor for the success of any

development plan.
The ministry is willing to learn and
exchange expertize on qualitative
learning with non-profit organizations
schools as part of its comprehensive
development plan, said Dr Al-Issa.
On the ministrys recent efforts to
develop education in Kuwait, the minister said that some 1,000 teachers
were trained to use tablet devices for

educating students, revealing that

some 80,000 devices will be distributed soon to a number of intermediate
schools.
Back in April, the ministry and the
World Bank had signed a KD 16 million four-year deal to develop the educational curriculum in Kuwait, said
the minister, adding that the ministry
of educations current budget of KD
1.6 billion required a boost to ensure
the success of plans for development.

Kuwait Today
Prayer Timings
Fajr ....................................... 04:41
Sunrise .................................. 06:01
Zohr ....................................... 11:32
Asr ..........................................14:39
Maghrib ................................ 17:02
Isha ...................................... 18:20

Weather
Expected weather for the next 24
hours:
By Night: Partly cloudy with light to moderate north westerly wind, with speed of 0828 km/h.
By Day: Partly cloudy with light to moderate north westerly wind, with speed of 1232 km/h with a chance for light rain at some
areas.

Kuwait Weather
Station
Kuwait City
Kuwait Airport
Abdaly
Bubyan
Jahra
Failaka Island
Salmiya
Ahmadi
Juluiah Port
Qaroh Island
Umm Al-Maradem

Max
Rec
28
29
29
27
28
27
27
29
27
31
31

Min
Exp
22
21
18
20
20
22
23
24
18
26
26

deaths
Roomiya Mifrej Zaid Mifrej Al-Hajiri, 55 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Fahad Al-Ahmad, Block 4, Street 421, House
36. (Women) Mubarak Al-Kabeer, Block 7, Street 14, House 31. Tel: 99099233. Bader Nasser Saad Thani, 63 years old,
buried. Condolences: Hadiya, Block 3, Street 1, House 49. Tel: 99789126 / 99021602. Abdul Ridha Jassem Mohammad AlHadad, 83 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Mansooriya, Al-Yasseen Hosainiya. Tel: 66360388. (Women) Rumeithiya,
Um Sadeq Hosainiya, Block 4, Street 44, House 5. Tel: 66690051 / 99044050. Majed Midej Majed Al-Dosari, 22 years old,
buried. Condolences: (Men) Qurein, Block 1, Street 39, the extent of Subhan Road, opposite Al-Qusur, House 3. Tel:
50595554. (Women) Mubarak Al-Kabeer, Block 3, Street 41, House 25. Tel: 55572829. Najem Abdul Razaq Omar Mulla Ali,
42 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Sabah Al-Salem, Block 11, Street 1, Avenue 2, House 7. (Women) Jabriya, Block 7,
Street 4, House 16. Tel: 60062006. Abdul Mohsen Rashid Ali Al-Darzi Al-Azmi, 14 years old, buried. Condolences: Mubarak
Al-Kabeer, Block 6, Street 21, House 15. Tel: 50377774. Manei Khalid Manei Muqeit Al-Ajmi, 12 years old, to be buried on
Monday afternoon at Jahra. Condolences: (Men) Saad Al-Abdullah, Block 6, Street 611, House 170/Blue 170, opposite the 6th
Ring Road. Tel: 99831245. (Women) Saad Al-Abdullah Block 8, Street 817, House 1371. Tel: 66868850.

Nov 1, 2015
Wednesday, Nov 04
Expected weather..Partly cloudy + scattered
rain + fog later on
Max Temp ...............................................29C
Min Temp ................................................22C
Wind Direction..................................VRB-SE
Wind Speed.................................08-18 km/h
Thursday, Nov 05

Expected weather..Partly cloudy + scattered

rain later on
Max Temp ...............................................28C
Min Temp ................................................22C
Wind Direction .........................................NW
Wind Speed.................................08-28 km/h
Tuesday, Nov 03
Expected weather ..Partly cloudy to cloudy +
scattered rain might be thundery at times
Max Temp ...............................................27C
Min Temp ................................................23C
Wind Direction..................................NE-VRB
Wind Speed.................................10-32 km/h

Min Temp ................................................23C

Wind Direction.......................................S-SE
Wind Speed.................................15-40 km/h

Tuesday, Nov 03

1st high tide: .........................................16:00

2nd high tide:........................................02:30
1st low tide: ..........................................09:15
2nd low tide: .........................................21:15
Sunrise: ................................................06:02
Sunset: .................................................17:02

Expected weather ..Partly cloudy to cloudy +

scattered rain might be thundery at times
Max Temp ...............................................29C
Min Temp ................................................23C
Wind Direction.......................................S-SE
Wind Speed.................................15-40 km/h

Expected weather ..Partly cloudy to cloudy +

scattered rain might be thundery at times
Sea state...........................slight to moderate
Wave height ...........................................1-4ft
Max Temp ...............................................27C
Min Temp ................................................23C
Wind Direction..................................NE-VRB
Wind Speed.................................10-32 km/h

Marine Forecast

Wednesday, Nov 04

4 days forecast - Weather

Monday, Nov 02

Sea state..........................Slight to moderate

Wave height ...........................................1-4ft
Max Temp ...............................................28C
Min Temp ................................................22C
Wind Direction .........................................NW
Wind Speed..................................08-28km/h

Station

Max Min Sea Todays

Exp Rec Surf Waves
Ht Direction
South Dolphin
30 22 27 4ft
SW
Umm Mudayrah
31 25
- 4ft
SW
Beacon M28
- 4ft
SW
Beacon N6
29 21
- 4ft
SW
Qaruh Island
31 26 29 4ft
SW
Umm Al-Maradem 31 26
- 4ft
SW
Sea Island Buoy
- 4ft
SW
Salmiya
30 23
- 4ft
SW

4-days forecast - Marine

Monday, Nov 02
Expected weather..Partly cloudy + scattered
rain later on

Expected weather..Partly cloudy + scattered

rain + fog later on
Sea state...........................slight to moderate
Wave height ...........................................1-3ft
Max Temp ...............................................29C
Min Temp ................................................22C
Wind Direction..................................VRB-SE
Wind Speed.................................08-18 km/h
Thursday, Nov 05
Expected weather ..Partly cloudy to cloudy +
scattered rain might be thundery at times
Sea state...........................slight to moderate
Wave height ...........................................2-5ft
Max Temp ...............................................29C

Tide times at Shuwaikh

Port

Recorded yesterday at
Kuwait Airport
Max temp ................................................27C
Min temp .................................................21C
Max Rh...................................................99%
Min Rh....................................................62%
Max Wind...................................NW 36 km/h
Total Rainfall in 24 hrs.....................4.96 mm

Recorded yesterday at
South Dolphin
Min/Max/ Air Temp .............................22/27C
Min/Max Rel Hum..............................58/95%
Wind Direction/Wind Speed.......NW/41 km/h
Prev Wave Dir/Max Wave Ht .................N/2ft
Min/Max Sea Surface Temp .............27/27 C
Sea Current..............Beginning of Downdraft

Directorate General of Civil

Aviation, Meteorological Dept.

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 1,

(Agencies):
Minister
of
Information and Minister of
State for Youth Affairs Sheikh
Salman Sabah Salem AlHumoud Al-Sabah on Sunday
announced the launch of
Kuwaits award for youth
excellence and creativity.
The award, the first of its kind for
youth in the Arab World, reiterates
the states keenness on youth and
their projects, giving priority to their
ambition as well as promoting their
capabilities as the countrys future
and real wealth, Sheikh Salman told
a press conference.
He added that the award is also part
of the states extensive strategy to prepare a young generation that sticks to
national values and be a partner in sustainable development through boosting
the culture of creativity and the artistic
aesthetic sense.
Sheikh Salman noted that the award,
launched by the Ministry of State for
Youth Affairs, will constitute an incentive to youth, and reaffirm that Kuwait
is doing its best to unleash their creativity.
He said that the ministry is highly
interested in encouraging creativity and
innovation among Kuwaiti youth in all
fields, patronizing the gifted.

Incentive
The newly-launched annual award
covers 10 fields, providing an incentive
for creativity and developing a favorable cultural environment. It offers
youth financial and spiritual support to
help them play a leading role in the
society, the minister noted.
For his part, the ministrys Assistant
Undersecretary for Youth Development
Abdulrahamn Al-Mutairi said that the
financial value of the award hits KD
100,000 for 10 categories. These
include entrepreneurship; education;
media; culture and arts; voluntary
work; sciences and technology; sports;
boosting health; architecture, urban
planning and, housing, and sharia sciences, Al-Mutairi noted.
Only Kuwaitis aged 14-34 are eligible to apply for the award, the first of
its kind in the Arab world. They can
apply as of Nov 1 (today) till Jan 14,
through the ministry website. Results
are to be announced at the beginning of
March.

In what was meant to monitor the

attendance of employees, the fingerprint attendance system in the Ministry
of Information has exposed employees
who are supposedly present at their
workstation and are actually outside
the country or behind bars, reports AlRai daily.
Ministry sources said the application
of fingerprint attendance system
uncovered many employees who continued to receive their monthly salaries
although they were absent from duty
for several years, in addition to those
who traveled abroad without permission and others held behind bars on
legal issues.
The same sources affirmed that the
authorities next month will start
deducting salaries and hold absentees
accountable for their actions, along
with those who skip the fingerprint
attendance system on a regular basis.
They noted the implementation of
the system has uncovered the reality of
all problems and complications the
ministry endured throughout the years,
and last week, about 3,000 of the estimated 7,500 employees were compelled to apply for leave, and the mass
leave application was to avoid their
inclusion in the fingerprint attendance
system, as they fall in the category of
absentees and evaders of the fingerprint attendance system.
Prior to implementation of the fingerprint system, the number of leave
applications in a month ranged
between 500 and 800 distributed
between periodical leaves and emergency leaves covering all departments
in the ministry.
It is noteworthy the fingerprint system was adopted by the Ministry of
Information upon directives from the
sector minister Sheikh Salman AlHamoud and Undersecretary Tareq AlMuzrim who vowed to embark on a
journey to reform the ministrys administrative procedures and to improve
productivity while protecting public
funds and unjustified squandering.

legal clinic
PRO BONO LEGAL ADVICE

Birth certificate
Both of my children were born
in Kuwait and I also got their birth
certificates from here. Now I seem
to have misplaced these documents and need them for my childrens admission to a local school.
What is the procedure to get a
duplicate birth certificate for a
child born in Kuwait. Will I face
any difficulty?

Name withheld
Answer: We have answered similar questions a number of times
over the years but just in case you
missed the procedure we detailed
we will again answer the question
for the benefit of all our readers.
This is a simple procedure and
you wont face any difficult in getting a duplicate (or a True Copy as
the Ministry of Health calls) of the
birth certificate.
This service is provided by the
Ministry of Health and allows citizens, residents and visitors to get a
True Copy of the birth certificate as
a replacement for a lost or damaged
certificate.
To get this certificate the applicant or his agent must visit the
Central Registry (located in
Maidan Hawally) for the Births and
Deaths Department of the Ministry
of Health and submit the following
documents:
Applicants personal identification (Civil ID, nationality certificate or passport)
Copy of the birth certificate, if
available. In case no copy of the
birth certificate is available, the
birth date and location and the birth
certificate issuing center must be
known.
There is a fixed fee of KD 2 and
after submission of the above documents you will be given a date to
collect the certificate. It is also possible that if there is no rush, you
might be able to get it immediately.

Visa problems
I am a trained teacher from
Ghana with eleven years of teaching experience. I also have certificates in banking and cashiering.
Just recently, I was told by an
agent that I could get a teaching
job in Kuwait. I didnt know there
were differences in the visa.
When I arrived in Kuwait, I was
told that my visa, Article 20, is only
for house help job.
Please help me because I didnt
sign any contract to that effect
and the agent deceived me to
believe that I was coming for a
teaching job. Now they said my
visa is non-transferable so I must
work as a house help for two
years or pay 600 KD and go back
to Ghana.
I am begging you to use your
honorable office to save me from
this predicament.
1. Help me with a transferable
visa
2. Help me get a teaching or
cashier job. I have all my certificates.

Name withheld
Answer: From your letter it
seems that you bought your visa
from a visa trader rather applying
for a job with one of the local companies and then getting a visa from
that firm.
Keeping that in mind there is
nothing you can do to get out of
your situation because the law
penalizes both the parties involved
in the visa trade, more so the person who sells such visas. If you go
to the authorities you will also have
to face legal consequences with the
end result being that you will be
deported from the country. There is
no legal way out of this situation
and you will have do the best you
can with what you have in hand.
On the issue of helping you get a
transferable visa or securing a job
for you, we must clarify that the
Legal Clinic is aimed at only providing legal advice to the readers.
We must stress that we are not in
the business of providing visas or
jobs.

Leave salary
I am a regular reader of the
Arab Times and the Legal Clinic is
very useful for expatriates like me.
I have a query related to leave
salary if a person is terminated
during probation.
I was terminated during the
third month of my probation period. I would like to know if I am
entitled to a payment against the
leave I have accumulated during
my probation?
In my case it would be above 5
days. If yes, what is the reference
article number in the Kuwait Labor
Law that I need to show to the
employer. Since my monthly
salary was high this is quite a
considerable amount which was
not paid although the indemnity
amount and the salary for the
days I worked during the month
was paid.
Appreciate if you could provide
me with an answer and a reference in Kuwait Labor Law as well.

Name withheld
Answer: The problem is that
employers read only the first few
lines of Article 70 and totally
ignore the last sentence which says,
The worker shall be entitled to a
leave for the fractions of the year in
proportion to the period he spent in
actual service, even the first year of
Sheikh Salman

service.
The question of the 9 months
service issue comes only when the
service is continuing and a person
has not been terminated. So, if a
person is continuing in service and
wants to go on annual leave he
wont be paid for the duration
unless he completes at least nine
months in the job.
On the other hand, if his services
are terminated he must be paid for
the annual leave he has accumulated regardless of the fact that he has
served less than nine months.

Govt project
I have been working in Kuwait
since 2011 with the same sponsor
on a government project visa 18
(akadhukoomi). Now I have got a
good opportunity, so I want to
transfer my residency to a private
company.
So, according to new law can I
transfer my residency. Need feedback.

Name withheld
Answer: The government is very
strict on the transfer of government
project visas and all the transfers in
this regard have been suspended by
the
Public
Authority
for
Manpower.
The Director of this authority
says most of such transfers are
linked to trading in visas. So, until
this suspension is lifted all the
transfers without exception
remain suspended.

Rent receipts
We have been living in our new
apartment for a year. The rent is
paid via bank transfers or through
the KNET. Suddenly, our landlord
has stopped issuing rent receipts
to us for the past 3 months.
Should we go to the rent court
over the issue?

Name withheld
Answer: The fact that you are
paying through the bank ensures
that you have proof of the rent payment.
But having said that, the landlord
is supposed to give you signed
receipts. So, the best thing is to ask
the landlord for the receipts and if
he insists on not providing them
you can go to the rents court.

Bank loan
I am from India and have been
working in Kuwait for the last 2
years. Currently I have a KD
5,000 loan from one of the local
banks.The loan is already 10
months old.
I am getting the instalments
plus the interest deducted on a
monthly basis from my salary
account. At the moment, due to
some emergency reason, I have
come to India and am not able to
go back to Kuwait at this time.
Now I have the following questions:
A. Can I keep transferring the
monthly amount to the bank from
my Indian bank.
B. Within one year I want to go
back to the Gulf or Kuwait. In that
case, if I pay them the accumulated interest also, but will that create any problems for me?
C. Do the Kuwait Laws say that
if anyone takes a loan from
Kuwait he/she must pay back the
loan before he leaves the country? If the monthly interest can be
transferred from an Indian bank,
will that be an issue?
D. As I came on an emergency
vacation and did not go back so
my visa was not cancelled. It may
be cancelled once it expires? Will
it have an effect on the loan if I
continue paying the monthly interest.
E. What is the legal action that
be can be taken?
Please advise.

Name withheld
Answer: In this case we will just
tell you to contact the bank as
every bank has a different set of
rules for every situation and if you
dont let the bank know of the correct situation the person who stood
guarantor for you will find himself
in a very difficult situation. He
could also face legal action.
If there was no guarantor
which does happen nowadays
the bank could file case against
you and you could be tried in
absentia by the Kuwait courts
and sentenced. If such a thing
happens, the Indian government
would be informed of the verdict
resulting in more legal complications for you.
So, approach the bank quickly
and negotiate a way out of your situation. We are sure that the bank
would be happy that you yourself
seek an end to the problem and
would most probably suggest a
mutually agreed way out of the
crisis.
This would save you a lot of tension and also ensure that there are
no hurdles in the path of your
return to Kuwait/Gulf.

The Arab Times invites questions

on all aspects of Kuwaiti law. If you
face a problem, or need specific
advice on any legal matter, from
commercial and investment law to
divorce and labour, send questions
to the Managing Editor, Arab Times,
P.O. Box 2270, 13023
Safat,
Kuwait, or Fax to 24818267. E-mail:
arabtimes@arabtimesonline.com