Jordan Times
Wednesday, March 3, 1999
Education sector faces reform
By Susan Resheq
AMMAN — The Ministry of Education is forging ahead with plans to introduce a comprehensive modern school curriculum in an effort to reform the educational system.
The ministry will also introduce a new hierarchy for public school teachers, giving them professional titles that reflect their actual positions and responsibilities.
“We are trying to renew scholastic books both in form and in content,” Education Ministry Secretary General Izzat Jaradat told a press conference on Monday.
He said under the new plan, the ministry, which in the past formed committees to draft accredited school text books, instead will ask local publishing houses to work on and to submit texts which could be used for teaching at state-run schools.
Such competition, officials said, would encourage authors to be innovative to generate students' interest. The ministry believes that this would reflect positively on the quality of education as most students complain of a dull curriculum that relies more on memorisation than on research and analysis.
“There will be one accredited curriculum for the elementary, preparatory and secondary classes, but the various publishing houses will come up with different books and the best will be chosen,” Jaradat added.
Private schools normally adopt the state syllabus but each adds extra books to complement the standard system.
“This plan will give a chance to publishing houses in Jordan to improve and develop their standards and to come up with new material,” Jaradat said.
He said the new curriculum will focus on modern academic and scientific changes that Jordan will need to cope with challenges posed by the third millennium.
The new teacher classification system will prod educators to improve their standards in order to be promoted.
The ministry has been working on teachers' professional titles for three years, Jaradat said.
“The main idea is to offer economic, moral and social incentives for teachers, and to create positive competition between them,” Jaradat explained.
“They should feel that they are developing in their careers but that they will only be able to achieve that if they work on developing their standards,” he added.
The system, to be implemented in the near future, will give four professional ranks for teachers; an assistant teacher, a teacher, first degree teacher and a specialised teacher. Currently, all teachers have one title regardless of their work experience and educational background.
Under the planned system, those holding less than university graduate degree will be given the rank of assistant teacher, while those aspiring to the rank of teacher will need a bachelor's degree.
The first degree title will be given to teachers with five to six years of teaching experience and must have a master's degree, he added.
The specialised title will be granted to those with 15 years teaching experience who hold a Ph.D.
The system will be discussed soon by the Higher Council for Education, which is chaired by HRH Prince Ghazi Ben Mohammad.
Jaradat also said the ministry plans to introduce English as a second language at the elementary level instead of waiting for the preparatory stage. Private schools teach English as a second language from grade one.
The ministry also is planning to introduce French as a second language for secondary classes, but will not make the language course compulsory. At present, only some private schools teach French as a third language.
Jaradat denied that the ministry had shelved plans to gradually cancel the state's high school general certificate exam, known as the Tawjihi.
“We are studying the plan to develop the Tawjihi exams and all matters related to that will be discussed in the future meetings of the Higher Council.”
The controversial plan was promoted by Education Minister Fawzi Gharaibeh after he took the post in August.
He mentioned that the ministry may unify the academic stream; the scientific and literary streams for senior students.