MPs pass 2017 amendments to JTA Law

AMMAN — The Lower House on Sunday passed an amended version of the Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) Law, reducing the number of the syndicate's central commission members from 314 to 167.

Under MPs' amendments, members of the syndicate's central commission will be elected on the basis of the open proportional list system.

Last Tuesday, the association's council announced March 27 as the election date of the syndicate’s fourth central commission.

Deputies also increased the term of the association's 14-member council to three years instead of two, as in the older version of the law to be elected by the central commission.

Teachers considering candidacy in the central commission's elections must have at least ten years of work experience in education under lawmakers' amendments to the law. 

The House also approved a recommendation by its Education Committee to the government to go ahead, according to conventional constitutional channels, with a set of amendments to the law by the association, especially those concerning the definition of "teacher".

Also on Sunday, the House referred for the second time its amendments to the public universities law to the Senate, insisting that university presidents be given the jurisdiction of administrative governors.

As worded by MPs and rejected by senators, public universities' assets are to be considered “public money” to be collected by their presidents who will perform in the capacity of administrative governors.