Around 1.95m students head to schools today

AMMAN — Around 1.95 million students, 193,000 of whom are first graders, are expected to start school on Tuesday across the Kingdom, marking the beginning of the 2017/2018 academic year, Education Ministry Spokesperson Walid Jallad said on Monday.

Jallad told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that more than 105,000 teachers and administrative staff had started work on August 26, stressing that the ministry was still appointing new teachers at schools to fill vacancies after finishing internal (within the same district) and external (to other educational districts) transfers of serving teachers.

Meanwhile, the ministry has received keys of 25 new schools in various areas, which were supplied with the necessary furniture, the spokesperson said, adding that the ministry ahs also built classroom and kindergarten extensions to absorb the increasing number of students.

He stressed that the ministry had a plan to ensure that schools are ready for the start of the new school year, including sufficient supplies of textbooks for all grades.

Jallad said that an operations room has been set up at the ministry’s headquarters and one at each education directorate to follow up on preparations for the new scholastic year and preparedness of schools to receive students.

The ministry also formed teams that paid field visits to directorates and schools to check on their preparations and needs before the beginning of the academic year, he added.

The ministry, in cooperation with the National Communication Centre, had earlier launched a service to receive complaints and remarks related to the educational process, where the ministry can be reached on 065008085, Petra added.

On the occasion of the beginning of the new academic year, the Public Security Department’s (PSD) Jordan Traffic Institute launched a traffic awareness campaign dubbed “Children’s safety is the responsibility of all”.

The campaign aims at raising the awareness of students and teachers on the safe use of roads, according to a PSD statement.

The programme also includes implementing inspections on busses that transfer students between their homes and schools, to ensure they conform to safety rules and have safety gear on board.