Jordan

Jordan is a country rich in human capital but poor in natural resources. The government therefore decided to begin a broad-based reform program. The first step was to establish the institutional and physical infrastructure needed to support Jordan's educational goals.

To move reform forward, the government took several steps: a new education law was prepared in 1994; the school system was restructured, abolishing middle schools and reducing the secondary school cycle from three to two years; the curriculum was modernized; and higher minimum qualifications were established for teachers.

More attention should be given to education at the preprimary level. The gross enrollment at this level is 26 percent. Because 99 percent of preprimary schools are run by private organizations and charge fees, not all parents can afford to send their kids to preschool. Thus, not all kids will be ready to learn when they start their first grade in public education. The government should initiate some preprimary schools, especially in rural areas.

At the basic education level (grades 1-10), the government has achieved nearly universal access: gross enrollment is 95 percent. Jordan was active in adopting the framework of the Education for All Conference held in Thailand in 1990 and again in Amman in 1996. This indicates the awareness of the government to educate all.

Secondary education in Jordan consists of two types—comprehensive (academic and vocational) and applied general education. The comprehensive secondary school provides two options—the academic and the vocational. Vocational education is offered in six types of schools—commercial, industrial, agricultural, nursing, hotel services, and home economics.

The higher education system in Jordan is comprised of two-year community colleges and four- to five-year university education. The offerings dramatically expanded in the 1990s when the government allowed private firms to invest in education by building their own universities. Twelve private universities were established, and three others were under construction in 2001.

The first public university was established in 1962. Three other universities were established by the end of 1989, followed by four more in the 1990s. The major reason for expanding higher education in 1990s was to cater to the hundreds of thousands of people who returned to the country after the Gulf War. The government was faced with the great demand to expand public universities, and several business leaders felt the need to invest in private universities.

In February 2000, the Jordanian government got a $34.7 million loan from the World Bank for a higher education development project. Its objective is to initiate improvements in the quality, relevance, and efficiency of Jordan's higher education. This is a very important change that needs to take place soon. Even though all public universities are governed by the same authority—the Council of Higher Education—these universities do not coordinate effectively in terms of the specializations to be taught. All of them offer similar fields and have the same colleges. The problem is that each university serves a certain region of the country, and they are not seen as a single unit serving the whole country.

While there is a high unemployment rate in the country, there is a need for skilled labor, but the universities do not focus on this type of training. The exception to this is the Jordan University of Science and Technology, which decided to open new fields of study that are not taught in other universities.

The two major changes planned for the academic year 2001-02 will be to begin computer training in the third grade and to teach English in first grade. The Jordanian government is aware of the importance of English as the language needed to compete globally and the importance of computer technology as an essential prerequisite for success in the information age.

In 2000, the Ministry of Education signed a $33 million contract to purchase approximately 20,000 computers. Twenty-two computers and a server to connect the school with a local network will be installed in 900 of the kingdom's public schools. The Ministry's ambitious program to introduce computers and computer-based learning in all government schools will be implemented over three years.

Incorporating the English teaching policy will be a challenge. The government will need to hire new teachers in the face of a budget deficit and hiring freeze in the public sector.

Teaching computer technology might be an even more unrealistic decision. The Ministry of Education unfortunately does not have trained people to teach computers. The other problem is financing such a project. This requires hiring new teachers and buying new computers, neither of which is possible unless the government gets loans from international lenders.