King briefed on gov't programme to implement economic vision in education

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday was briefed on the government’s programme to implement the Economic Modernisation Vision in education, at a meeting attended by HRH Crown Prince Hussein.

During the meeting, held at Al Husseiniya Palace, King Abdullah highlighted the need to focus on the quality of education and invest in qualified Jordanian human resources to advance the sector and keep up with modern teaching methods, according to a Royal Court statement.

His Majesty called for moving ahead with teacher training in line with the ongoing process of developing the curricula, especially for the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi).

The King urged stepping up efforts to adopt the latest technology in education, in order to move into blended learning and avoid any disruptions in the future under any circumstances.

His Majesty also called for identifying the reasons behind learning loss to come up with suitable solutions.

The King underscored the need to encourage the private sector to contribute to plans to expand kindergartens.

Speaking at the meeting, Crown Prince Hussein stressed the importance of focusing on training teachers and honing their skills as a key priority, calling for continuing efforts to develop vocational training to meet labour market needs.

His Royal Highness also urged adopting careful criteria for selecting locations to build new schools, taking into account providing a suitable learning environment.

Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh highlighted the education sector’s main priorities within modernisation across all its tracks, focusing on the importance of bolstering vocational education, enhancing kindergartens, and expanding teacher training.

Education and Higher Education Minister Azmi Mahafzah outlined the sector’s priorities for 2023, including kindergarten level 2 universalisation, and developing curricula for the first level of kindergarten.

The sector’s priorities also include developing the ICT infrastructure for education, continuing to enhance and digitise the curricula, focusing on teacher training, bolstering technical and vocational education, compensating learning loss, and attracting expatriate students.

The minister said the Economic Modernisation Vision is geared towards increasing vocational enrolment by 5 per cent each year to reach 20 per cent by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2027.

Mahafzah also spoke about blended learning and efforts to promote good governance and bolster capacity building, stressing that the vision calls for public-private partnerships to enhance education.