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AMMAN — Amman Mayor Aqel Biltaji has met with the a delegation from the Chinese city of Turpan to discuss bilateral relations in municipal affairs, culture and tourism, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Tuesday. The two officials discussed means of joint work and benefiting from the Chinese experience in several fields including the development of infrastructure, subway trains and tourism.

Biltaji showcased the Greater Amman Municipality’s current and future plans in the field of transport, renewable energy and increasing green areas. The delegates commended the municipality’s services for Amman residents and voiced readiness to enhance bilateral cooperation.

AMMAN — Edraak, a non-profit pan-Arab open online course platform of the Queen Rania Foundation (QRF), is developing two new courses with the British Council to complete the free online English language learning series, according to a statement released on Tuesday said. QRF CEO Haifa Dia Al Attia and British Council Jordan Director Steve Mcknulty signed the agreement.

The free courses, which target beginner and elementary level Arabic-speaking learners, will build on the content of the first course — “Learn English: Conversational Skills for Beginners” — and will focus on conversational skills that can be applied in both the workplace and everyday contexts, according to the statement.

AMMAN — By 2019, around 55 per cent of early graders in public school will be able to read with comprehension and do mathematics with understanding — two departments in which students used to perform “very poorly”.

Under the Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Initiative (RAMP), a $48-million project funded by the US and the UK, more than 400,000 students at 2,500 government-run schools will be targeted over a course of five years to improve their reading and mathematics skills.

“Some will be disappointed. Why only 55 per cent? Why not 100 per cent? Well, the issue is that 55 per cent will be an enormous achievement when we know that there were only 13 per cent of children who were able to read with comprehension and do mathematics with understanding in 2012,” said expert Aarnout Brombacher.

Brombacher cited a USAID-funded study conducted in 2012 that showed that the vast majority of early grade students were found to lack fundamental reading and mathematics skills.

The study also showed that only one in five second and third graders were reading with comprehension and that children were unable to perform basic mathematical functions with real understanding, depending instead on memorisation.

The findings of the study have prompted the Education Ministry in cooperation with the USAID to carry out a one-year pilot programme that has managed to change the status quo in the schools it was applied in.

In only one year, the intervention project managed to double the number of children reading with comprehension and performing mathematics with understanding, according to the results of an assessment survey conducted to measure the outcomes of the programme.

The project significantly reduced the proportion of the lowest performers and increased the proportion of the highest performers among students in the targeted schools, USAID said at a ceremony to announce the results in 2014.

The number of students reading with comprehension increased from 12 per cent in 2012 to 24 per cent, while the number of students doing mathematics with understanding increased from 14 per cent to 24 per cent.

The outcomes of the intervention plan have inspired stakeholders to initiate RAMP, which was officially launched by Her Majesty Queen Rania last April.

The project, led by the Education Ministry and implemented by RTI International in partnership with other local and international organisers, targets students from KG2 to grade three.

RAMP works on achieving its goals through improving learning materials, preparing teachers to provide effective reading and mathematics instruction, engaging communities for participation in the education of students, and supporting the government in its endeavours to institutionalise early grade reading and mathematics policies.

“Parents and people do not always understand what we mean when we say reading with comprehension and doing mathematics with understanding,” Brombacher said on Tuesday during a ceremony to launch the slogan of the initiative “I Read the Book, I understand Mathematics”.

He explained that when children first learn to read, they read at different stages, with the first being able to read familiar words (often the context gives the meaning to the words).

“At this stage children know words as pictures and often early instructions are about introducing children to pictures. Now the problem with that approach is that our minds run out of the capacity to remember more pictures and if reading relies on memorising the pictures,” Brombacher said.

“After grade two or three, we will not be able to read anymore because our vocabulary has increased to several thousand words,” he noted, adding that the same applies to mathematics when children first learn to count as a song without understanding.

“These are very important first stages for reaching and understanding mathematics, but children do not get beyond this stage; they are in trouble,” stressed the expert, underlining the importance of reading to children at home in improving their skills.

Nearly 14,000 teachers will receive training under RAMP within five years.

“Witnessing the improvement and character development of my students after applying the activities I was trained on through the initiative was overwhelming,” said Mervat Waleed, a second grade teacher at Al Shaimaa Primary Coeducational School.

With students from around 90 nationalities currently receiving education in Jordan’s public schools, Nawaf Ajarmeh from the Education Ministry attributed the overall “poor” performance of early graders in basic comprehension skills to the size of classrooms.

“The influx of Syrian refugees alone has resulted in the enrolment of 145,000 Syrian students, and around 40,000 new ones are expected to join public schools by the start of the coming scholastic year,” he noted.

“The real reform of education starts from the early grades, taking into account that education is a social responsibility that all partners and stakeholders should work together to realise... successfully. The Ministry of Education has the lead role in raising awareness about the initiative and educating the public on its benefits,” said the ministry’s secretary general, Mohammad Okour.

Commenting on the RAMP initiative, USAID Mission Director Jim Barnhart stressed his country’s commitment to continuing support for the education sector in Jordan.

“Education has always been a priority for the Hashemite leadership and is a cornerstone of the United States’ commitment to Jordan’s prosperity. The ministry’s reading and mathematics initiative represents a firm and deep commitment to improving the academic performance of all children in Jordan,” Barnhart said.

Jeffrey Tudor, head of office at the UK Department for International Development, said: “Education is one of the best investments that a country can make in its future economy and society, and it is well proven that investing in the early stages of a child’s schooling is one of the most effective investments of all.” 

“The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Jordan, committed to Jordan’s stability and economic prosperity and the well-being of its children,” Tudor added.

ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP –– Daraa-born Mohammad Krad's passion for wrestling and his belief in his abilities transformed him from a disabled child unable to walk into a national hero in his city and throughout Syria. 

Krad, who is currently residing at the Zaatari camp, some 90km northeast of Amman, teaching young Syrians wrestling, recounted that the success of his uncle Mohammad in this sport encouraged him to become a successful sportsman. 

"I suffered from Perthes [a childhood hip disorder] and I was unable to walk. I spent the whole time watching clips of my uncle, who was the world champion in wrestling," he told The Jordan Times in a recent interview at the camp.  

"When I turned 13, thank God I was cured from the disease. It took me only four months to be ready in this sport because I already knew all the movements," Krad recalled.

The wrestler said his first big moment in the sports came in 1994, when he took part in a tournament for the first time in Idlib.

"It was the first time for me to even go out of my own city. To this day, I still remember the moment when the organisers said 'the winner is Mohammad Krad!' I felt like the king of the world," he said with a smile. 

Although Krad's uncle was unable to watch the tournament, his family members were overjoyed by his victory.

"I went back home at 3am, and when I entered the house holding the certificate, everyone was amazed. My uncle and father were surprised that I won after only four months of practice, and we stayed up late, talking about the tournament and the people I beat."

Krad said he was the Syrian wrestling champion 12 times in 10 years and clinched the gold medal of the Arab championship. He was also chosen to be a member of the national team in the 1996 Moscow Olympics.  

"Later I was known in the city, and many players used to fear me, but at the same time I respected my opponents." 

Krad decided to continue on to a college for sports, and although he did not pass the exams on his first attempt, he said the support he received from his family and his mother, in particular, helped bring him back to the track of success.   

"My mother told me: 'If you want to be a hero you have to lose the first round so that you win the whole game.' In 2002, I passed the exams and joined university afterwards," he said.

Upon finishing college in 2006, the wrestler made up his mind to stop playing and turn to coaching. 

"I decided to stop playing because I had already achieved many things and I wanted to start on a new path, combining the practical side with the information I acquired from college," he noted, adding that he trained more than 180 young Syrians in Daraa. 

However, Krad's popularity also had some negative effects, as he was forced to make a difficult choice when anti-regime demonstrations started in his city.  

"I was approached by the sports federation to be one of the 'shabiha' [pro-Bashar Assad thugs] to end the demonstrations in the city by force." 

He said that since many Syrians saw him as a national hero, he did not want to tarnish this image and, therefore, decided to leave the city the following day. 

After moving through many locations in Syria, Krad sensed that the situation was getting more dangerous, so he decided to move to Jordan four years ago. 

Since arriving at the camp, which is home to around 80,000 refugees, Krad has been teaching Syrian children wrestling.

"I met a number of my former students here at the camp, and they still remember me. It was really a joyful moment for me. My ambition is to see one of my students become a famous sportsman in the future." 

AMMAN — Scavengers digging through trash bins in Amman are driving away millions of dinars of potential investments in the capital's waste collection and segregation, a municipal official said on Tuesday.

Waste picking is no longer practised by the needy but rather by people who have turned the practice into an organised profession, Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) spokesperson, Izzedin Shammout, said.

"Every scavenger has his own territory or street. It is a trade nowadays. They dig out trash, tip over containers and leave waste lying across the street, which causes health and environmental hazards and clogs the streets' drainage systems," he told The Jordan Times over the phone.

The municipal official underscored that scavenging is scaring off potential investors in waste collection and recycling, stressing that investors demand that the municipality address scavenging before they agree to invest in the capital's waste management.

"GAM tried to attract scavengers to work as street cleaners or to work at the landfills' waste segregation points, but they refused. They are living off scavenging and generating JD1,000-1,200 from selling glass, plastic, copper or iron to factories," he said.

Shammout said the municipality is currently working on addressing the phenomenon.

"Scavengers are violators. We are currently looking into amending the municipal law to draw up strict penalties against trash diggers," he added.

GAM workers collect some 3,000 tonnes of garbage every day, officials have said.

AMMAN — The Senate on Tuesday referred the three draft laws on domanial money collection, residence and foreigner affairs, and higher education institutions accreditation commission back to the Lower House after amending them.

The Upper House disagreed with deputies on the draft domanial money collection law and agreed with the government’s version, reinstating Article A of Paragraph 17 that the Lower House had removed, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The provision imposes an annual financial fine of 9 per cent on each unpaid financial claim that was not settled, as expenses for collection and administrative follow ups; these fines shall not exceed 50 per cent of the claim value except for claims that have fines under other regulations.

The Senate also scrapped an article added by the Lower House to the draft residence and foreigner affairs law which allowed the issuance of a residence permit for a foreigner if his/her mother is Jordanian, Petra added.

The Upper Chamber also amended the 2015 draft higher education institutions accreditation commission law by removing an article that stipulates that “if the commission’s president finishes his service, he is appointed at the highest degree of professorship at the university he worked at”.

Also during the session, the Senate endorsed the amended patent law as referred from the Lower House, and approved deputies’ decision regarding the draft laws on the Public Security Department martyr fund and the Civil Defence Department martyr fund, which increase the value of instant aid for martyrs’ heirs from JD2,000 to JD10,000.

AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) personnel have arrested 83 suspects involved in 57 drug cases since the beginning of February, a Public Security Department (PSD) statement released on Tuesday said. 

The agents also confiscated seven weapons and retrieved three stolen vehicles during the same period, according to the PSD.

One of the most significant cases involved arresting a suspected drug dealer during a house raid. 

AND agents also found 1kg of hashish, a half kilogramme of synthetic cannabis (locally known as joker) and 2,000 Captagon pills at the house.

The statement did not specify the location of the house. 

In another case, two suspects were arrested in Karak, some 140km south of Amman, for reportedly promoting and selling drugs in a vehicle that belonged to one of them. 

When they were arrested, they were in possession of 524 narcotic pills and an amount of hashish as well as two weapons, the PSD said.

In a separate case, AND personnel raided a house of a person allegedly involved in drug dealing. 

They found 1,467 Prazin pills and another 1,397 narcotic pills hidden in 36 boxes in the house. 

At another house in south Amman, AND agents found 2,000 narcotic pills, 2kg of hashish and half a kilogramme of joker. 

In the first six months of 2015, 5,490 drug cases were registered, 468 of which were related to trafficking, 36 related to addiction and 4,986 related to possession, a PSD official said last year.

AMMAN — The third edition of the Iranian Film Days, which opened on Monday and is organised by the Royal Film Commission (RFC), continues until Thursday at the Rainbow Theatre.

The festival kicked off with the film "Wednesday, May 9" by Iranian filmmaker Vahid Jalilvand, in which two women seeking help to mend their shattered lives respond to a newspaper advertisement by a philanthropic man planning to donate money to people in need.

The genre of the film, like most of the other films featured in the festival, is social drama that highlights social and economic issues facing the country, and depicts everyday situations in the lives of the working class and the poor.

Tuesday witnessed a screening of "Nahid" from director Ida Panahandeh, winner of the Promising Future Prize at Cannes International Film Festival, which follows a young divorcee hoping to remarry without losing her son under Iran's child custody laws, according to the organisers.

On Wednesday, the festival will show the film "Tales" by veteran filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad, which ties together the stories of a number of characters dealing with economic problems, addiction or abuse. The film received the award for Best Screenplay at the Venice International Film Festival.

Thursday's film will be "For the Sake of Pooneh", in which a recovering drug addict begins to doubt his wife's fidelity after returning from rehab.

In a discussion that followed Monday's screening, film critic and professor Parviz Jahid said Iranian cinema usually focuses on social drama in order to highlight some of the most pressing problems in the country.

“Social realism is a major genre in Iranian cinema. Many Iranian filmmakers work with social drama and address social problems in society such as poverty, corruption, class division and prostitution,” he said.

 “The realistic interpretation of the stories in this film in particular shows the audience how many people are suffering in Iran and how many people are in pain,” he added.

Jahid, who obtained his PhD on the "new wave" movement in Iranian cinema from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, pointed out some of the societal restrictions on the creative process of filmmaking in Iran, such as the prohibition of female characters removing their hijab in indoor scenes.

“This violates the realism of some of the scenes. Nevertheless it has become an issue that filmmakers have learned to deal with and can now cleverly work around," he said.

Shadi Al Nimri, project manager at the RFC, urges people to watch these screenings and see the professionalism of Iranian cinema.

“If you follow the cinema scene you will see that Iranian films are participating in all international film festivals. Iranian cinema is a professional industry and we aim to one day have an industry like that here in Jordan,” he said.

Screenings, which start at 7pm, are free.

AMMAN — Since the Middle East is the major energy supplier of oil and gas for Japanese industrial needs, the region’s stability is a vital geopolitical interest for Japan, according to a professor at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University.

“Moderate Muslim states are the proper partners of Japan,” said Nobumasa Akiyama, a professor at Hitotsubashi University’s graduate schools of law and international and public policy, adding that “Jordan and Japan have special relations.”

The professor’s remarks came during a lecture under the title “Japan’s Strategy Towards the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities”, delivered at a seminar held last Thursday at the Middle East Scientific Institute for Security in Amman.

The regional rivalries between Israel and Iran, and between Israel and Arab states, as well as confrontations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, are drivers of instability, Akiyama said.

Apart from regional rivalries, terrorism and insurgency in the shape of various extremist groups such as Daesh, Al Nusra Front and Al Qaeda also undermine the stability of the region, he continued, highlighting the deaths of Japanese citizens in terror attacks on a natural gas plant in Algeria in 2013 and by Daesh in Syria in 2015.

Another potential threat is the spread of extremism from the Middle East to East and Southeast Asia, as evident in terror attacks in Indonesia, the professor noted.

“Certainly, the Japanese are a pacifist nation. It is also true that there are restrictions on the use of force, despite the recent amendment of the interpretation of the constitution,” Akiyama said.

“However, Japan is making a proactive contribution to international peace, with the emphasis on economic and social assistance as Japan possesses strength in these fields,” he added.

In regard to the current turmoil in the Middle East, Akiyama suggested three strategies for dealing with the rise of radical movements: strengthening counterterrorism measures, enhancing diplomatic ties and enabling the creation of societies immune to radicalism.

“Peace and stability are the foundations for economic prosperity, and economic prosperity is the foundation for peace,” the scholar stressed.

At the same seminar, Satoru Mori, a professor at the Department of Global Politics in the law faculty of Tokyo’s Hosei University, gave a lecture titled “Recent Developments in Japan’s Security Policy and the Japan-US Alliance”.

The key characteristics of Japanese security policy are flexibility, alliances, security cooperation and capability, according to Mori.

He elaborated on these four characteristics, explaining that flexibility means expanding the scope of Japanese Self-Defence Forces; alliance relates to boosting Japanese-US defence cooperation; security cooperation invigorates capacity-building and stepping up defence article transfer; while capability is the build-up of a dynamic joint defence force. In light of increased tensions in the Pacific region, Mori underscored that “the need of Japan’s strategic approach is to review its constitution and prepare for all kinds of scenarios”.

“The ultimate goal is to proactively preserve peace and security in the Asia-Pacific [region] and beyond,” he concluded. 

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Tuesday referred the third annual report on public departments’ commitment to developing their services to ministries and public institutions.

The circular, prepared by the Ministry of Public Sector Development, urged stakeholders to benefit from the survey implemented by the ministry and committing to the 2012 public service development by-law, according to a ministry statement.

Public Sector Development Minister Khleef Al Khawaldeh said the ministry implemented the survey in cooperation with 74 public departments, to examine the commitment level of these institutions and address shortcomings reported in the second study the ministry carried out in 2014.

The survey included a three-grade indicator showing public departments’ commitment to the by-law, where institutions that scored 3 were considered completely committed to the by-law, Khawaldeh noted.

The commitment average reached 2.09 and departments were classified according to their results into excellent, very good, good, medium and weak, added the minister.

The survey report showed the commitment to “preparing an annual plan to develop services based on service recipient needs, satisfaction surveys, performance results and complaints” topped the list of items departments find it hard to apply, where 39 departments — out of the 74 — did not achieve it, Khawaldeh said.

The report revealed that 55 departments achieved degrees ranging between good and excellent, while 15 departments scored medium and four were listed as weak in commitment, the minister noted.