Jordan Times
Thursday, October 21, 2004
US grants Jordan $3m to back
JEI
By Rami Abdelrahman
AMMAN — The US on Wednesday said it will grant Jordan $3 million to fund the
development of “English as a Foreign Language” curriculum for 7th to 12th grade
students.
Minister of Education Khalid Touqan said the government, the Cisco Learning
Institute (CLI) and the US Department of State's Middle East Partnership
Initiative (MEPI) will sign a memorandum of understanding for the implementation
of the curriculum, which will be available on the Internet as of next year.
During yesterday's annual Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) update meeting,
organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the government, Touqan explained
that the new JEI curriculum would focus on introducing business and science
language to students as step in “building a knowledge-based economy.”
“English language links people all over the world, and its mastery is important
for those young people who wish to broaden their horizons,” said US Embassy
Charge d'Affaires David Hale.
During a press conference Wednesday, he said the new curriculum would bring
“cutting edge American technology” to the country's educational system through
CLI, which is in charge of developing the curriculum.
CLI Executive Director David Alexander explained that the new curriculum, which
will be deployed on a trial basis in the Kingdom's “discovery” schools next
year, would introduce animation and simulation as well as vocabulary, grammar
and communication skills used in businesses today for 7th to 12th graders.
Alexander said the introductory materials for curriculum are localised with
photo and video shots taken in Jordanian locations, as well as giving examples
and creating scenarios that are derived from the Jordanian lifestyle.
But the localisation of the curriculum would not hinder the intellectual
property owners from promoting, customising and selling the curriculum abroad,
according to Alexander.
“Since they are the investors, MEPI can use the curriculum in other places if
they want... If CLI has a commercial or philanthropic use for the curriculum, it
can use it only under agreement with MEPI and the Ministry of Education,”
Alexander told The Jordan Times when asked about the curriculum's intellectual
property ownership.
Alexander added the Jordanian firm Rubicon will work with CLI in developing and
localising the materials, as both sides have cooperated in developing other
curricula such as science and maths. Currently, CLI's team is working at
Rubicon's premises in Amman.
Representatives from the WEF, the government, and JEI partners such as Computer
Associates, Cisco Systems, Intel, DHL, local companies and university professors
are gathering in Amman for the Fourth Update Meeting of the JEI.
The JEI is a public-private partnership model for effective and advanced
learning deployment, which was launched by His Majesty King Abdullah and Cisco
System's CEO John Chambers during the WEF 2003.
MEPI is a US presidential initiative founded to support economic, political and
educational reform efforts in the Middle East with a focus on women and youth.
It has previously provided, through the United States Agency for International
Development, a $500,000 grant to the JEI to install computers in local schools.
According to Touqan, the Arabic, maths, science, ICT and physics curricula are
currently developed or deployed in Jordan for the JEI.