This brief paper is part of a larger research project which examined the historical background of teaching in the Kuwaiti educational system before and after the Gulf War in 1990 in order to propose a new perspective on teacher education in Kuwait, particularly with regard to religious education. The author is interested in whether others have a contribution they can make to the issues raised in this research in progress paper. The background to the study is a report released by the Ministry of Education (1988). This declared that, to parallel the development of Kuwait's social and economic fields, future studies, workshops, reports and research must take into account Kuwait's approach to the development of teacher preparation. Moreover, with regard to teacher education, it was reported that the level of the students at secondary schools was academically low because the level of teaching was not of a high standard. The report suggested that, first, high teaching salaries would motivate teachers to do better in their work and to improve low standards and, second, that teacher education in Arab countries in general face constraints and obstacles unique to the region which can therefore cause unique challenges for training teachers. The report also identified an issue regarding the balance between teaching subject content and educational theory and practice in teacher education. Regarding teachers' in-service programmes the report said that many studies indicate that the first and second years of teaching are crucial to the individual's ability to be an effective teacher. One reason for this is that disappointing experiences during this time period will have a bad effect on teachers and they may, therefore, leave the profession. The report declares that teaching more than five years in some systems does not develop teachers' attitude towards teaching but only encourages teachers, particularly excellent ones, to find other jobs. Furthermore, the study found that society has a tendency to blame teachers for the students' social and psychological problems and for the weaknesses in their academic achievement.