Parents fear summer camps are ‘not safe for their children’

AMMAN – With more than 1.9 million students currently in their summer holiday, parents are struggling to keep their children occupied during the long break. 

Although schools organise summer camps that offer students a variety of outdoor activities and teach them new skills, some parents say they do not think the facilities are safe for their children.  

For Linda Odeh, the mother of a nine-year-old son, summer camps start and end at “unsuitable times for working parents”, while failing to provide a secure environment for students. 

Odeh said her son’s private school has a summer club, but she did not want him to attend because children from outside the school were allowed to join. 

“We don’t know the new students, their background or behaviour,” Odeh told The Jordan Times, charging that most summer schools are focussed on profit. 

“[Profit] overrides students’ well-being,” she said, adding that she prefers that her son  stay at home during the vacation. 

“Otherwise, I will be worried as long as he is there,” Odeh said.

Hanadi Abdul Hadi echoed Odeh’s sentiments, noting that she preferred to escort her three children, aged six, eight and eleven, to any outdoor activities. 

“You hear about many incidents that take place in schools due to negligence. I cannot imagine my children swimming at the school pool without being worried,” she said. 

The stay-at-home mother noted that she tries her best to fill her children’s time with meaningful activities during the summer.

“Online gaming takes a lot of their time,” Abdul Hadi noted. 

While acknowledging the importance of summer camps in keeping students active and teaching them new skills, Murad Ammari also feels reluctant to enrol his two children in the programmes. 

“I don’t like them to stay at home playing games online, but I don’t trust summer camps enough to send them there,” he told The Jordan Times, citing the drowning of a seven-year-old girl in a school pool two years ago. 

Schools that organise summer camps told The Jordan Times they were committed to ensuring a safe environment for children.

“We don’t engage students in activities that we believe could pose a threat to their safety. We focus on their personal development and ability to create new friendships and unleash their talents,” said Asem Mihyar, a teacher at a private school that holds an annual summer camp. 

Painting, public speaking, spelling competitions, dancing, swimming and playing musical instruments are some of the activities students should take part in during their vacation, according to Mihyar. 

“Parents must not deprive their children of such activities, but finding clubs that ensure students’ well-being should be a top priority,” he said. 

But for Ammari, “quality clubs come with inflated prices”.

“People with three children or more cannot afford to enrol them in these clubs, especially as school fees are already very high,” he noted. 

Last month, the Education Ministry announced its planned activities for students during the summer holiday.  

The plan included a national training programme for 10th graders, in cooperation with the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army and the participation of 1,500 students under the supervision of military trainers and 75 teachers, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The programme, which runs from July 16 to August 16, aims to build students’ personalities and develop their sense of teamwork, volunteerism and patriotism, organisers said. 

The plan also involves implementing HRH Crown Prince Hussein’s Haqiq (Achieve) Initiative, with the participation of 1,200 ninth and tenth graders. Other activities will also be held through Al Hussein Camps with the participation of 1,300 eighth, ninth and tenth graders.

The new academic year starts on September 1.