Jordan Times
Friday, May 19, 2006
Ministry to introduce new provisions in Education Law to protect the rights and dignity of teachers
AMMAN (Petra) — A Tafileh Vocational Secondary
School student stabbed the principal with a dagger while he was questioning him
over his misconduct in class.
Tafileh Education Director Mohammad Tamimi said the principal’s, Amin Btoush,
condition is stable.
This is the second such incident in Tafileh this month. Two weeks ago, a female
student at Fatima Bent Al Yaman School attacked the assistant principal, who was
treated in hospital for scratches on the face.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Education said it plans to introduce new
provisions in the Education Law that “protect the dignity and rights of
teachers,” in light of increasing incidents where students assaulted
schoolteachers.
Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Khalid Touqan said the ministry would present the amendments, which also cover
the classification system of private schools, to Parliament as soon as they were
ready.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Touqan said
under the new provisions schools would be classified into four categories,
depending on quality control standards.
The law would define the fees charged by private schools and the salaries they
pay to teachers in line with the category each falls under.
The minister also provided details on the projects being implemented by the
ministry, which seeks to build an information system to promote a sounder
educational decision-making process, develop school curricula, expand the
construction of public kindergartens to reach rural areas and construct new
school buildings.
Touqan said students of grades two, five, nine and 11 will be studying from
their new textbooks, which replaced the older versions, starting next year.
Meanwhile, the new textbooks for grades three, six, 10 and 12 will be introduced
in the 2007-2008 academic year.
The ministry has wrapped up a project to develop the electronic content of maths,
science, Arabic, English and social education subjects under the Jordan
Education Initiative, he said.
It is also continuing with its plan to build new schools in order to move out of
rented buildings and do away with the two-shift system, Touqan said.
He added that 19 new schools opened this year, while the ministry was expecting
50 other school buildings to be handed over by contractors.
The ministry also introduced 284 kindergartens, 50 of them this year, while
another 50 will open their doors to children the next scholastic year, most of
them in rural and underprivileged areas.
Outlining the outcome of an IT training programme for teachers, he said 65,000
teachers have so far done the International Computer Driving Licence, while
20,000 have been trained on Intel programmes. There are now 2,200 computer labs
in public schools, where 80,000 PCs are installed.
Referring to the School Nutrition Programme, under which 250,000 meals are
distributed to schoolchildren, Touqan said the ministry is planning to expand
the number of beneficiaries to 600,000 children in grades 1-6.
He said investigations revealed that improper storage was the reason behind the
recent case of rancid milk, adding the problem had been addressed.