Jordan an Early Childhood Development model in the region

Jordan an Early Childhood Development model in the region

Early Years

Early Years

Primary School Years

Primary School Years

Adolescence

Adolescence

 

Primary School Years

© UNICEF Jordan

According to Jordan’s EFA 2000 report, net enrolment in primary education has increased from 87% to 95%; the increase was for both sexes and for urban and rural areas, with the increase in the rural areas being the fastest.

As children move into the formal education system, enrolment rates shoot up, grade one gross enrolment rates have been 100% in urban areas since 1990, and have risen from 90% to 100% in rural areas over the same period. Grade One net enrolment has also increased from 93% in 1990 to 96% in 1998, this is true for both boys and girls in urban and rural areas. The difference between governorates is minimal.

 

The government places strong emphasis on providing education to all students, the budget of the Ministry of Education is 11% of the total government budget, the Ministry provides 74% of the education to students while UNRWA covers 11% and the private sector covers 14.5%.

 

The education cycle is divided into three stages; kindergarten (2 years), primary education (10 years), secondary education (2 years), all stages are free, but only the primary education is compulsory. Because the Ministry of Education is committed to providing education in all communities in the country, many schools are very small, 10% of the schools have less that 73 students, and about a third of the schools have less that 100 students.

 

As part of the educational reform plan, Jordan has been keen on periodically measuring students’ learning achievement to compare their progress versus previous national learning achievement results versus international standards. Thus, Jordan has participated in the Third International Study for Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1999 together with 38 other countries. The study was implemented on eighth graders only, whereas the previous study of 1991 was implemented on seventh and eight graders. Among the 38 participating countries, Jordan achieved the 30 position in the Science test and 32 position in the Mathematics test. Thus, Jordan’s results were better than only eight countries form the total number of participating countries, in the 1991 study, Jordan was ahead of one country only.  However, while Jordan has been actively participating in international studies to assess the numeracy of its students, work is still needed to assess the adequacy of the education system in providing students with basic life skills to better prepare them for their future.

 

© UNICEF Jordan

A study (1996) on gender roles in school curricula has shown that gender stereotyping and roles increase the higher the grade is and it is mainly concentrated in Arabic language texts, religion, Social studies and history. The study indicates that male roles are dominant in the textbooks reaching 87.6%.  The study also found that 96% of roles portrayed in public life are male roles and characters while the role of males in the family settings decreases to 76%.

 

As for female roles, two thirds are portrayed in family settings and one-third in public life settings. The female functions portrayed in public life are in nursing, teaching, clerical work, and un-skilled labour, while there is no mention of any female role in politics, business, technical work and skilled labour.

 

It should be noted however, that the students curricula is also being overwhelmed with many messages and themes covered by various bilateral agreements made by the Ministry of Education, these include water, the environment, human rights and others. There is concern that this is causing the curricula to be affected by fragmented concepts and ideas that are not part of a comprehensive review.