Jordan

Secondary education consists of two years of study for students ages 16 to 18 who have completed the basic education cycle. As the students were provided with a broad-based, general education during the 10 years of basic education, secondary education is designed to prepare them for higher education or the labor market.

Students are admitted to secondary education according to their abilities and interests. They are provided with specialized cultural, scientific, and vocational experiences, which meet the existing and anticipated needs of society. Accordingly, secondary education is divided by category: comprehensive secondary education, which provides a general common cultural base to all students, in addition to specialized academic or vocational education, and applied secondary education, which provides vocational training and apprenticeship. According to the Ministry of Education (1998), secondary education in this context is intended to enhance the major cardinals of basic education and to prepare students to be able to:

• Use the Arabic language to increase their ability to communicate, develop their scientific and literary culture, consider the fundamentals of correct language structure, and relish its arts.
• Adapt to environmental changes in their country and their effects on the natural world, society, and culture; to exploit and maintain resources well; and to improve their potentials.
• Derive their culture from their nation's heritage and to be aware of the necessity of conscious openness to world civilization and to contribute to it.
• Interact with the cultural environment of their society and to try to develop it.
• Be aware of the importance of family and its role in social life.
• Consolidate their self-confidence with respect for the dignity and freedom of others.
• Exemplify the principles, rules, and values of Islamic ideology in their behavior and understand the values and convictions in other heavenly religions.
• Seek the progress, prestige, and pride of their country and be keen to participate in solving its problems and achieving security and stability.
• Know the issues of their nation, be proud of belonging to it, and seek its unity and progress.
• Work in a team, know the bases and forms of democracy and practice them in dealing with others, and believe in social justice principles.
• Be aware of international issues and of the importance of international understanding and peace built on justice and right.
• Perform their duties and adhere to their rights.
• Master at least one foreign language.
• Understand mathematical and logical concepts and relationships and use them in solving problems.
• Look for data resources carefully and be able to collect, store, process, and benefit from them.
• Understand new scientific facts and their applications, be able to verify them experimentally, and know their role in human progress.
• Protect the environment, keep it clean, and develop its potentials and wealth.
• Understand health information and rules pertaining to balanced physical and psychological growth and to practice them.
• Relish artistic work and express their interests in this field through producing positive artistic works within their abilities.
• Seek professional qualification, economic independence, and self-sufficiency.
• Use their free time for practicing useful hobbies and recreational activities.
• Reflect Arab, Islamic, and humanistic values in their behavior.
• Use common sense in dialogue, tolerance in dealing, and courtesy in listening.
• Develop themselves through self-learning and lifelong education.

In the academic year 1996-97, the average student to teacher ratio was 17 to 1 in the academic secondary education and 13.8 to 1 in vocational secondary education. Successful students at the end of the secondary cycle obtain the General Secondary Certificate, which includes the results of the General Secondary Examinations for the first and second terms, as well as their overall average.

Between 1995 and 1998, two-thirds of male students enrolled in academic secondary education and four-fifths of female students enrolled, perhaps because females had fewer options in vocational training than males.

Starting with the academic year 1996-97, one exam for the General Secondary Education Certificate at the end of the second term of the academic year was introduced. In addition, a project related to the development of the General Secondary Education Examinations, implemented in cooperation with the Scottish General Examinations Board, aims to measure several such skills as acquiring knowledge, solving problems, and finding facts in all subjects. Concerning foreign languages, the MOE plans to include skills related to reading, listening, and conversing, as well as writing. Supervisors and teachers will be trained for the new examinations, and the Ministry will issue specifications.

The comprehensive secondary school aims to prepare youth to enter institutions of higher education. The general secondary school provides two options—the literary and the scientific. Specialization or "streaming" takes place beginning in the eleventh grade and depends on prior academic achievement. High achievers in science and math usually follow the scientific stream. Twelve subjects are offered in the scientific stream and 14 in the literary. The subjects are classified general requirements, basic or essential subjects for the field—both compulsory and optional—and electives.

Vocational education is offered in six types of schools: commercial, industrial, agricultural, nursing, hotel services, and home economics. Each of these fields offers different subjects in the eleventh and twelfth grades. For example, the agricultural field course offers chemistry, biology, general agricultural sciences, and irrigation. During the school year 1997-98, there were 30,372 students in 322 such institutions. These students represented 43.2 percent of male students and 22.4 percent of female students enrolled in the secondary education.

Industrial secondary schools teach skills necessary for employment. The course work focuses on mathematics, physics, vocational safety, and specialized industrial sciences, in addition to courses in general education and knowledge.