Ministry plans to return to one-semester Tawjihi — Thneibat

AMMAN — The Ministry of Education plans to revert to the one-semester Tawjihi system rather than have students sit for exams in winter and summer sessions, the minister, Mohammad Thneibat, said Tuesday.

At a meeting between Cabinet members and the Lower House-based Mubadara group, Thneibat said the ministry is studying the possibility of scrapping the General Secondary Certificate Examination’s (Tawjihi) winter session as of the 2015-2016 academic year.

The current two-session Tawjihi system was adopted in 2001. 

Thneibat did not elaborate further on the ministry’s plans.

In February last year, the ministry made a similar announcement, saying it will cancel the exam’s winter session as of the 2014-2015 academic year, but the move has not been implemented. The minister at the time, Wajih Owais, said the decision is meant to cut expenses.

The Jordan Teachers Association said at the time that cancelling the winter session will “exhaust” students, while those who fail one subject will have to wait a whole year to redo the exam.

Meanwhile, Thneibat said the ministry saved up to JD12 million in costs by organising this year’s Tawjihi exams in fewer examination halls.

The number of schools with examination halls was reduced from 1,640 in the last summer session to 422 this year, according to ministry figures. 

Tawjihi exams cost around JD26 million annually.

A total of 126,773 students had registered to sit for the Tawjihi summer session, for which the ministry tasked 13,000 teachers to supervise the exams and 18,566 to correct the papers.

Thneibat said the ministry also plans to review the private education system in the Kingdom, with the aim of establishing a special commission to accredit private schools operating in the Kingdom.