Office of Her Majesty
April 19, 2008
Queen Rania affirms – “Education is a social responsibility”
(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department – Amman) In an editorial focusing on the Madrasati (My School) initiative, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah affirmed that “education is a social responsibility” as she wrote of the task of refurbishing 500 of Jordan’s most dilapidated schools and creating a more conducive learning environment for over 163,000 public school students.
“Building our children's future is our responsibility. Hand-in-hand we will be able to reach every school in need and work together to make these changes,” wrote the Queen in Saturday’s editorial.
The Madrasati initiative, launched by Queen Rania last week, is a new plan to renovate Jordan’s public schools and improve the learning environment. Over the next five years it will build a partnership between community members and public and private institutions, to upgrade at least 500 of the Kingdom’s public schools. The initiative will also see a partnership between community mobilizers, students, parents, teachers and volunteers who will all assess school conditions and come up with integral and comprehensive solutions to rehabilitate the place where our children spend most of their day.
In the editorial Queen Rania describes some of the shortcomings of these schools, which lack “the basics of a healthy environment and appropriate infrastructure, not to mention contemporary education needs and inspired teachers.”
The initiative brings together partners including the Ministry of Education, the Jordan River Foundation, Jordan Education Initiative, Royal Health Awareness Society, Jordan Education Society, Children’s Museum, Private Schools Commission, Greater Amman Municipality, the Queen Rania Award for Distinguished Teachers, UNICEF, Injaz and Ruwad, all committed towards providing the targeted schools with their needs.
The Queen’s editorial emphasized that the collective capacity of having the various organizations work together with civil society, parents and teachers, is what will lead to the initiative’s success.
“One individual can't make the change overnight, but if we combine our efforts we can achieve our objectives in a short time. Education is a collective responsibility; let us make it a social responsibility,” she urged.
For a complete transcript of Her Majesty’s editorial, as written in Arabic, please visit: www.QueenRania.jo or www.Madrasati.jo