New regulation prohibits school transfers at any given time

Education Ministry has published a new regulation that prohibits the transfer of schools during any given time of academic year.

Prior to this, school transfers were permitted during any time of the year. Education Ministry underscored a high number of school transfers due to the existing regulation.

Speaking during a program on state media, PSM, last Thursday, State Minister for Education Ahmed Mohamed said regulations surrounding school transfers had been extremely relaxed prior to this which has resulted in a large number of school transfers.

“Some parents have filed school transfer requests for a single student three times during an academic year. This is not the best course of action in terms of the education of the child. It is not the best course of action [in general] for the child either,” he said.

As such, Ahmed Mohamed said a new regulation had been established, which sets forth the rules regarding enrolling students in schools and transferring from one school to another.

He added that this is the practice followed in developed countries such as Singapore.

With the new regulation, school transfers will be allowed before the commencement of the academic year and before the commencement of the second term. In this regard, Ahmed Mohamed detailed that school transfer applications, if for first term, must be submitted one month before the conclusion of the second term while school transfer applications, if for second term, must be submitted one month before the conclusion of the first term.

Nevertheless, he underscored that the Ministry will allow school transfers during other times if prompted by extenuating circumstances after a case-by-case review.

“There are factors such as change of peers and the whole environment to consider when a student changes from one school to another. We came to this decision as it is not the healthiest course of action to transfer schools at any time for reasons such as a change in the apartment of residence,” he said.