By KUNA,
Kuwait : A Kuwaiti school offered its students the unique experience of imitating the elections process, in its entirety, to better understand the adults’ practice.
Ghuzail Al-Asfour, supervisor of Al-Shaye’s School located at Shamiah residential area, told KUNA that the students experienced and organized all aspects of an election and campaigning process, the only difference being their age.
Makeshift electoral headquarters and poll stations were set up with funding from parents of the students and the school management contributed in various expenses of the prototype process, Al-Asfour said.
The management secured ballot boxes, and all students from the various levels of the elementary classes took part in the process, the votes determined based on candidates’ manifestos.
Yousef Jassem Al-Yaacoub, 10 year old fifth grade student, was the winner in the poll and secured 72 votes. Speaking about his program, he said he advocated women political and social rights and granting mothers longer paid leave to care for their children after birth.
State property abuses and disregard for traffic laws also came up in his campaign, he said.
A close second was fifth grader Abdelrahman Al-Mishari with 62 votes. He said his emphasis was on increasing his peers’ awareness on the nature, the functions, and guidelines organizing the National Assembly. This complements a lesson in the National Education syllabus, he added, and the school director supported this kind of live demonstration.
His campaign topics included support of urban and construction development and utilizing the latest technology at state facilities like hospitals and training of medical staff and physicians, to improve the services provided in this vital sector. This would reduce need and, therefore, expense of seeking treatment abroad, he stressed.
Both students stressed their parents’ support was crucial to success of this experience and that they and their peers have learned a great deal on this subject as the nation experiences the process in real life.