Kingdom’s schools to reopen today

AMMAN — Around two million students in the Kingdom are set to head back to schools on Sunday at  the start of the new academic year.

As part of its preparations for the academic year, the Education Ministry on Saturday announced its readiness to receive the students in “a sound educational environment”, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The ministry has added 17 new schools across the Kingdom with 388 classrooms and labs, as well as implementing 44 extension projects, constructing 363 new classrooms.

Tenders for building a total of 686 new classrooms will be floated, while education departments have floated 397 tenders for maintenance for public schools.

Focusing on preschool education and increasing enrolment in public schools, the ministry highlighted that 75 new classrooms have been built across the Kingdom, while 65 others are under construction to be opened this year, in addition to 144 kindergartens.

About 105,000 preschoolers were enrolled in early education last year, with 1,816 public school classes and 3,713 classes in private institutions. 

The ministry also underscored its plan to cooperate with the private sector to maximise preschool enrolments.

Touching on the human resources, the ministry said it has appointed a total of 3,600 teachers to meet the present need.

To follow up on preparations, the ministry has formed a number of operation centres to check on schools and  has tasked its field teams with addressing schools’ problems, Petra added.