Tawjihi changes are ‘final’ — official

AMMAN — A Ministry of Education official on Thursday stressed that “the decision is final”, and condemned any “inappropriate means of expression”, as students staged protests in Zarqa and Madaba governorates this week to reject changes to the General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi). 

Earlier on Tuesday, a video went viral on social media showing high school students at Zarqa Governorate taking part in acts of vandalism which included burning garbage and tyres to express their anger over holding the Tawjihi once every academic year instead of twice.

On Thursday, local news websites reported protests staged by students in front of the Madaba Education Directorate to voice similar rejections.

The protesters described the new system as “unfair”, and called for its cancellation and a return to the previous system which granted them two opportunities, according to Sarayanews.com

The director of the examination department at the Education Ministry, Nawwaf Ajarmeh, stressed was in the students’ interest as it seeks to mitigate their stress over the two sessions, while also reducing the exam’s subjects from 10 to 7.

He noted that the volume of each subject was also reduced and the “stuffing material” was removed.  

“The one-session exam is not an individual decision but was taken after a national conference held in 2015 that was attended by experts and academicians who made this recommendation,” Ajarmeh told The Jordan Times, adding: “We denounce inappropriate means of expression and we are open for discussions and have already met with groups of students.”

“Any proposed change should be tested and experienced to see its results before protesting for a change,” he continued.

The National Campaign for Defending Students’ Rights (Thabahtoona) warned that protests will continue as a vast number of students are expressing their anger.

“The one-session system was implemented before, then it was cancelled when it proved its failure,” Thabahtoona Coordinator Fakher Daas said, claiming that the re-implementation of the decision only seeks to reduce financial costs.

“All international systems give students more than one chance, so what kind of educational recommendation is this?” he asked, adding: “It is actually more stressful when the students’ future depends on one chance only.”

He called for conducting more than one exam-sitting for each course as an alternative measure to reduce the burden rather than being tested for both semesters’ material within one exam sitting

Hasan Abu Fares, a scientific stream current Tawjihi student in Amman, said that he was supporting the one-session system, but his concern is over the time-space between exams.

“Even if we have studied the entire material over the year, we still need sufficient time to revise,” he told The Jordan Times, expressing his fear that things may even need to be restudied and not just revised.

“The exam is yet to be held next June and its details and schedule are not announced yet,” Ajarmeh stated, advising students to attend their schools and focus on their studies.

He added that those who fail will not have to wait for another year, but will have the chance to retake the exam in a complimentary session after only a few months.