DAMMAM — The Ministry of Education has required all kindergarten and first grade elementary students to have their own separate passports before they can register at schools. Ministry of Education spokesman Mubarak Al-Esaimi told Al-Eqtisadyah daily that this step was taken to ensure that the students' data is properly documented at an early age. He added that the “Noor” system for registering students depends on this data, which will form the basis to build on a future database. He pointed out that divorced women may only submit a copy of their family identification cards to register their children, if they do not have passports. “Passports have become the international identification document and monitoring this data from the beginning will facilitate the transfer of such data if students move outside the country,” he said. Meanwhile, spokesman of the Passports Department, Lt. Col. Ahmad Al-Luhaidan, said 51,132 passports were issued for children under the age of 10, since the beginning of the year. He added that the Passports Department encourages parents to issue separate passports for their children, especially since many countries require separate passports to issue visas.
