Education minister, heads of mission visit double-shift school supporting Syrian refugee children

AMMAN – Minister of Education Azmi Mahafzah on Thursday thanked donors from Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Norway, UK, and USAID for their continued support to the Government of Jordan as it works to fulfill its commitment to ensure equitable access and quality education for refugee children in the Kingdom.

This year, through the “Accelerating Access to Education Initiative” (AAI 2.0), around 151,668 Syrian refugee children and around 3790 refugee children of other nationalities have been supported to access quality education, according to a statement made available to The Jordan Times.

In addition, a pilot programme in 60 schools is supporting 2,013 children with disabilities and learning difficulties. This includes 1,595 Jordanian children, 388 Syrian refugee children and 30 refugee children of other nationalities.

AAI is not only supporting the recruitment of the education staff, but further providing the learning materials, hearing, vision and physical aid devices, as well as developing institutional screening and monitoring guidelines for the inclusion of children with disability, and finally training all school staff on the inclusion concepts and steps, the statement said.

The creation of learning support teachers and multi-disciplinary team members is a first for Jordanian public schools. AAI is currently supporting 180 learning support teachers and 120 multidisciplinary team members across all directorates to support the 60 AAI inclusive school’s pilot.

AAI’s main focus has always been to directly support government ensure access to education for refugees and vulnerable groups in Jordan. This support includes training teachers, financing salaries for teachers and administrative staff, opening double-shift schools, supporting blended learning, purchasing schoolbooks, providing tuition fees, and covering costs for operations and equipment in these schools, according to the statement.

Mahafzah said: “I am delighted to celebrate the major achievements in refugee education today alongside the HoMs of AAI donors and commend them for their continuing support. It is remarkable to see how the multi-donor trust fund continues to provide refugee children with basic education and how it has also established learning support teachers and a multi-disciplinary team for vulnerable Jordanian and refugee children in Jordan. It is a model that we plan to expand to support Jordan to meet its commitments toward achieving quality and inclusive education for all children.”