Workshop outlines draft national Education Strategic Plan

AMMAN — Key education stakeholders in Jordan, ministry staff and UN partners participated in a workshop held in Amman from October 17 till 25, focusing on finalising the national Education Strategic Plan (2018-2022), according to a UNESCO statement.

The plan is currently in development with technical support from the UNESCO Amman office and UNESCO’s International Institute for Education Planning (IIEP).

The workshop was designed to focus on refining indicators and national targets while fine-tuning objectives of the draft Education Strategic Plan (ESP), the statement said. 

Ministry of Education and Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation staff demonstrated a “strong commitment” to the process, working at length in six groups representing the six domains contained in the ESP, which are: Early childhood development, access and equity, system strengthening, quality, human resources and technical vocational education and training (TVET). 

On the final day of the workshop, the draft strategy was presented in the presence of Minister of Education Omar Razzaz, UN representatives, donors and education stakeholders. 

The minsiter thanked all of those who participated in the preparation of the draft of the strategic plan. Projected costs were outlined and feedback and questions were provided by Razzaz and others in attendance.

“With a gap this big, tremendous resources will need to be mobilized to fund the plan,” Razzaz was quoted in the statement as saying.

Next week, a compiled draft of the plan will be circulated and revisions will be made, based on prioritization, the statement read. 

Targets and activities will be revised, ensuring these are aligned with Education Ministry’s priorities. In addition, the key performance indicators will be aligned with the “Common Results Framework” and other relevant indicators. And once final costs and targets are approved by the ministry, the plan will be submitted for validation by the national authorities. 

Yukiko Matsuyoshi of UNESCO thanked Razzaz for his “strong engagement” and recognised the efforts of all those who had participated in process. 

Razzaz highlighted UNESCO’s and IIEP’s contributions. “We are in a much better situation today than we were four months ago; we have a plan rather than wishful thinking,” he said.