Jordan Times
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Menhaj, Microsoft team up to develop
ICT curriculum
By Rami Abdelrahman
AMMAN — An agreement was signed last week between Menhaj Educational Technologies and Microsoft Corporation, under which both companies agreed to start developing the information and communications technology (ICT) curriculum, as part of the Jordanian Education Initiative.
According to the agreement, Microsoft and Menhaj will be responsible for developing, alongside the Ministry of Education, the national ICT curriculum for the Kingdom along with over 500 multimedia lessons for the curriculum, which covers grades 1-10.
The curriculum will be deployed under the Jordan Education Initiative in the country's 100 discovery schools by July 2005.
However, both companies agreed with the government to deliver the first 50 `test' lessons by January.
The agreement was signed by Menhaj CEO Ghassan Lahham and Microsoft Senior Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector Maggie Wilderotter.
“I believe that this project will be a cornerstone for the Jordanian ICT sector as it will provide Jordanian students with advanced ICT skills starting at an early age, enabling them to compete internationally,” Lahham said, promising that the curriculum will be developed according to international standards.
He added that the agreement would not only develop the ICT track on a national scale, but also improve the ICT platform in the Kingdom as Microsoft intends to bring `deeper know-how' into the Kingdom.
“Microsoft is committed to working with its partners and with the government of Jordan to achieve its goals in terms of improving the educational process. Our agreement with Menhaj represents a model in dealing with local partners to provide technical solutions to support this educational process,” Wilderotter said.
Menhaj, which employs over 70 local IT professionals, believes that a partnership with world IT leaders such as Microsoft is an important step in the educational reform process and would help build IT capacity for human resources to enable them to achieve His Majesty King Abdullah's vision of transforming Jordan into the ICT hub of the Middle East, while exporting Jordanian-made educational material abroad, as the curriculum will be promoted in more than 60 countries.
According to Lahham, the development of the ICT curriculum also entails building capacity at the Ministry of Education, as public school teachers will work fulltime at Menhaj to help develop the curriculum according to the needs of local students, while they will be trained to use advanced IT technologies.
Earlier on Thursday, Minister of Education Khalid Touqan, and Wilderotter launched the Education Support Centre (ESC) in a ceremony that took place at the Queen Rania Centre.
The Education Support Centre (ESC) is a resource designed to provide K-12 public schools throughout the country with “expert, free and effective” technical help and advice on using Microsoft technologies.
In addition to providing technical support, the ESC will also provide subscribers with access to an online learning community, enabling them to share information and best practices.
During the inauguration ceremony, Touqan said that “Microsoft has listened to the needs of the Jordanian education sector and delivered a new technical assistance and software support service. It is a strong indication of Microsoft's commitment to Jordan's education initiative and the ministry's reform efforts.”
The centre will act as the primary contact location for all schools. It will be run by a combination of full-time employees and part-time university computer science/engineering students to be trained by Microsoft to obtain professional certificates that would advance their IT skills as support staff, while students will get `hands-on' experience through working directly with IT professionals.