‘Education Ministry, NRC developing special curriculum for out-of-school children’

AMMAN — The Ministry of Education and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) have embarked on developing a special education programme that targets all out-of-school children, regardless of their nationalities.

The new package, which will be adapted from the official Jordanian curricula, is an “accelerated learning programme” (ALP) that will be ready for the start of 2016-2017 school year.

“Our priority is to have a framework that would [enable] all children who are not allowed in schools because of age difference to go back to school and reintegrate,” an NRC statement quoted the Ministry of Education as saying.

The ALP offers children between the ages of 9 and 12 who are not allowed to attend classes at formal schools due to age difference, or those who had never been enrolled in school, to receive a condensed form of the Jordanian curricula and catch up with their peers.

“With the support from NRC and other agencies, we are now working to define all the basic learning outcomes, and teaching and evaluation strategies specific to the programme, [and to] create model lessons and other templates that would ensure smooth implementation,” the ministry said in the statement.

UNICEF estimates that more than 90,000 Syrian refugee children in Jordan are currently out of school, and up to 30 per cent of them have never attended any form of formal education.  

The Ministry of Education notes that while there are much lower rates amongst Jordanian children there is a concern that some of the most vulnerable remain out of school, the NRC statement said.

“The need for a programme that would help out of schoolchildren return to school stems from the enormity of the numbers,” Laura Marshall, education manager at NRC, said.

NRC has been working in Jordan since 2012, in partnership with UNICEF, implementing programmes inside formal refugee camps and among host communities. 

More than 4,600 Syrian refugee children have been enrolled in NRC’s learning centres, 1,550 of whom have graduated and been supported to return to formal schools.