Efforts underway to revamp private education ‘unified contract’

AMMAN — The Lower House’s Education Committee and the ministries of education and labour, alongside the Jordan Teachers Association (JTA), on Tuesday agreed to form a committee to formulate and develop proposals for a “unified contract” for private schools. 

The committee will also set the appropriate mechanisms to implement the unified contract within a maximum period of one month from the committee’s formation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The decision to form the committee was taken during a meeting with the Lower House’s Education Committee to discuss the issue of teachers’ contracts in private schools.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Walid Maani, Secretary General of the Ministry of Education Sami Salaitah, Secretary General of the Ministry of Labour Ziad Obeidat and JTA President Basil Freihat, while representatives of the Owners of Private Schools Association did not show up for the meeting despite being informed beforehand.

Head of the Lower House’s Education Committee Ibrahim Bdour said that the new committee was formed under the supervision of the Education Committee.

Its main task is to develop practical and prudent proposals to come up with a new formula for the unified contract, he explained.

He also pointed out that this committee will submit its proposals, observations and recommendations for the Lower House’s Education Committee to take action accordingly.

For his part, Maani said that there are clear regulations to protect the teachers, and that private schools are obligated to comply with them.

These regulations bind the licensing of private schools to their commitment to the unified contract system, approved by all the relevant bodies, including the Owners of Private Schools Association, he added.

The standing unified contract system requires private schools to pay teachers 12 salaries in full for the entire year, deposited or transferred to their bank accounts, as well as to provide the Social Security Corporation with the corresponding payslips, according to Petra.

Salaitah said that the private schools system had been amended so that schools were obligated to transfer salaries to banks.

Obeidat stressed the need to search for new ways to ensure stricter control measures and enacting deterrent penalties against violators of the system.

On the other hand, Freihat called for a system governing the work of private schools rather than instructions.

He noted that the JTA has many issues with the unified contract and its implementation mechanisms, as 90 per cent of private schools do not comply with the 10 per cent raise system.

Additionally, Obeidat called on all private schools to abide by the unified labour contract, in accordance with the collective labour contract issued according to the provisions of the Jordanian Labour Law No. 8 of 1996 and its amendments between the General Union of Private School Owners and the General Union of Workers in Private Education.

Obaidat said in a press statement, carried by Petra on Tuesday, that the Ministry of Labour decided to carry out a large-scale inspection campaign in various regions of the Kingdom to ensure that private schools are committed to the implementation of the unified contract in general and the minimum wage in particular, as stipulated in the provisions of the collective labour contract.