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AMMAN — A study on the quality of elementary education in the Kingdom’s schools recommended conducting interviews with university graduates before appointing them as teachers.

The study, conducted by the Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies, said that appointing teachers based on their academic degrees without interviewing them to evaluate their qualifications has negatively affected the quality of education in the country’s schools.

The low wages and lack of training for teachers, in addition to the lack of curriculum development are also negatively affecting the quality of education, said the study, a copy of which was sent to The Jordan Times.

According to the study, despite the high rate of enrolment in elementary schools (98.1 per cent) and the programmes developed by the ministry to enhance basic education, there are indicators that the sector is deteriorating.

Citing international reports, the study said the Kingdom’s education ranking among world countries has dropped from 45 in 2011 to 64 in 2013, according to the Legatum Institute index.

Moreover, a study on the performance of students in reading and mathematics that was conducted by the Ministry of Education in cooperation with USAID, showed that more than 100,000 (22 per cent) Jordanian students in the first three grades cannot read in English or Arabic.

The Phenix centre report said that having 270 double shift schools (7.6 per cent of the country’s schools) negatively affects the quality of education, adding that the drop in government spending on education in general is also to blame.

Figures cited in the study showed that spending on education accounted for 10 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) between 2008 and 2010, compared with 13 per cent of the GDP between 2000 and 2005.

Other reasons are related to the lack of follow-up from parents on the academic performance of their children.

AMMAN — Cyber security experts from the UK and the Czech Republic will help enhance the skills of Jordanian police in combating cyber threats such as identity theft, fraud and child pornography under an EU-funded twinning project launched Monday.

The 15-month “Strengthening the Capacity of the Public Administration to Combat Cyber Crimes in Jordan” project entails the exchange of expertise and helping the Kingdom improve performance in combating threats.

“Jordan’s ICT sector is booming, the banks are developing e-banking services and e-commerce in the country is on the rise. Therefore, this project will help Jordan in combating cyber threats,” British Ambassador to Jordan Peter Millett said at the launch ceremony.

“It is important to protect users, but it is also important to protect public entities, the government and the police from cyber threats,” Millett added.

He said the project will help make Jordan a regional centre for excellence in combating cyber crimes.

Public Security Department (PSD) Director Gen. Tawfiq Tawalbeh said the EU-funded twinning project will significantly help Jordan in dealing with cyber threats, adding that it will enhance the performance of PSD personnel in charge of combating these crimes.

Tawalbeh also said that to address the massive spread of cyber crime worldwide, Jordan has sanctioned the Anti-Cyber Crime Law in 2010 and the PSD has set up a specialised unit tasked with following up on computer-related crimes.

Czech Deputy Ambassador to Jordan Bohumil Jirkal explained that combating cyber crimes also requires an improvement of relevant laws, pledging his country’s full cooperation with Jordan in the field.

Giving a speech on behalf of EU Ambassador Joanna Wronecka, Pascal Odul, programme manager at the union’s delegation to Jordan, said cyber crime is a relatively new manifestation of existing global and trans-regional threats such as terrorism, illicit trafficking and other forms of organised crime.

It is estimated that more than 1.5 million people fall victim to consumer cyber crimes every day, with an estimated damage of some $110 billion per year, Odul said.

“The purpose of this 3 million euro project is to enable criminal justice authorities to engage in international cooperation on cyber crime and electronic evidence on the basis of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime,” he added.

The EU officials urged Jordan to sign the the Budapest Convention, which entered into force in 2004.

It is the first international treaty on crimes committed via the Internet and other computer networks, dealing particularly with copyright infringements, computer-related fraud, child pornography and violations of network security.

It also contains a series of procedures such as the search of computer networks and interception to combat threats, according to the website of the Council of Europe, which drew up the convention.

Its main objective, set out in the preamble, is to pursue a common criminal policy aimed at the protection of society against cyber crime, especially by adopting appropriate legislation and fostering international cooperation.

AMMAN — The Private Hospitals Association (PHA) is considering increasing the fees of healthcare services offered to non-Jordanian patients at the Kingdom’s private hospitals, its president said on Monday.

“The proposal comes after the electricity price hikes for private hospitals, in addition to the hospitals’ need to increase the salaries of their employees,” PHA President Fawzi Hammouri told The Jordan Times in a phone interview.

He stressed, however, that Jordanians are to be excluded from the possible hike.

“Hospitals pay 259 fils per kilowatt hour [kw/h], while hotels pay 160 fils and factories pay 60 fils for the same electricity consumption,” Hammouri said, noting that the PHA seeks further support from the government when it comes to electricity tariffs.

He added that in July 2011, the electricity tariff for hospitals was 113 fils kw/h. Due to the latest increase in prices, some private hospitals’ electricity bills increased by almost JD1 million.

Hamouri noted that hospitals cannot reduce their energy consumption.

“Operating rooms have to be well-lit, and the air has to be filtered and cooled,” he said. “Patients’ rooms also have to be kept at certain temperatures.”

Hamouri noted that hospitals worldwide “and even local public hospitals” charge foreigners more than citizens, adding that some public hospitals in the Kingdom charge non-Jordanian patients 40 per cent more than Jordanians.

“The association is studying alternatives other than increasing medical fees to sustain Jordan’s competitiveness in providing healthcare services,” he said.

The PHA, which includes 46 member hospitals, submitted a proposal in May 2013 to the Ministry of Energy and to the Electricity Regulatory Commission to establish a 15 megawatt solar power station to generate electricity, but the association is yet to receive a reply, according to a PHA statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

Under an agreement signed in August 2013, the PHA and the Jordan Renewable Energy Society are planning to launch a project to establish a 15-megawatt solar power plant to provide electricity for tens of hospitals across Amman.

The project is aimed at cutting down hospitals’ electricity bills, which reportedly account for over 20 per cent of operational costs, with the average 200-bed medical centre paying over JD90,000 per month.

Once established, the plant is expected to lead to an immediate 20 per cent drop in private hospitals’ energy bills, with the association expecting to recoup initial building costs after a five-year period. 

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour is scheduled to meet with the country’s higher education officials, and presidents of public and private universities on Saturday, a source said on Monday.

A higher education source said discussions at the meeting will cover coming up with an executive plan to implement the higher education strategy.

In addition, “we will discuss issues related to criteria governing admission to the country’s public and private universities,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There are currently 10 public and 18 private universities in Jordan.

The source said decreasing the number of students accepted in subjects with low demand in the job market will also be discussed in the meeting, adding that government support to universities will also be on the agenda.

Participants at the meeting, he said, will discuss including the government’s support as a fixed item on the state budget.

Violence on campus and ways to curb it will also be discussed, according to the source.

Violent acts at universities have been on the rise over the past few years.

The number of violent incidents reported at the Kingdom’s public and private universities over the past four years was 296, resulting in seven deaths, according to a study released recently by the Jordanian Political Science Association.

Fights on campus registered from 2010 to 2013 involved 3,999 students — 1,331 in 2011 alone, the study said.

AMMAN — Germany’s minister for economic cooperation promised 25 million euros in additional humanitarian aid to Jordan on Monday while calling for a coordination meeting in Brussels to better channel international aid amid a sprawling refugee crisis.

On his first visit to the region, German Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Gerd Müller said his country “valued, recognised and thanked” Jordan for the enormous effort made in dealing with the refugee emergency.

“We very much recognise what you have been doing in the past years and we would like to continue to support you,” Müller said after holding talks with Planning Minister Ibrahim Saif.

“We are able today to commit for another 15 million euros in support of Jordan’s work while addressing the difficult challenges posed by the refugee crisis. We cannot leave Jordan alone. This dramatic task must be shared with the international community and the European Union especially,” he added.

Over the past two years, Germany has provided JD110 million in humanitarian aid to the Kingdom, and ongoing development cooperation projects, especially in the water sector, are worth a total of over JD550 million, according to the German embassy.

Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq have taken in the majority of the 2.2 million Syrian refugees, with around 600,000 of them living in the Kingdom, UN figures show, putting a strain on the country’s health and education services, and already scarce water resources.

“The German government supports countries in the region facing the large refugee influx with financial aid and cooperation. We decided to raise the number of Syrian refugees in Germany to 10,000, calling on our European partners to do the same,” Müller told The Jordan Times.

Saif said that among the issues up for discussion were the historical relations between Jordan and Germany and ways to enhance them and the economic repercussions on Jordan becouse of the Syrian crisis.

“We are adopting an economically adjusted programme to overcome the threats posed by unemployment and poverty which [have been] affecting Jordan since even before the Syrian crisis. We look at the next five year agenda trying to identify areas for operations that may prove beneficial to both countries,” Saif told reporters.

Trade between the two countries is worth about JD810 million, with the value of German imports to Jordan worth JD800 million, which leaves room for improvement on the Kingdom’s side, he said.

Welcoming Germany’s proposal for a coordination meeting in Brussels where donors and hosting countries could together work out a strategy to better coordinate international efforts, Saif called for holding the gathering within the first half of 2014.

“Beyond official UNHCR figures, we estimate an additional 400,000 Syrians in Jordan. This large number has been increasingly stoking resentment within the host community that we [have been] able to contain so far with the help of the international community, but we should not lose momentum in our development efforts as this crisis might last for another three to five years,” the minister said.

An additional 10 million euros in aid would support children via UNICEF in a country where some 200,000 Syrian refugees are of school age, but only 80,000 are enrolled in education, often in classrooms with double shifts, UN Children’s Fund figures show.

“Adolescents aged 14 to 17, many of whom had dropped out of school, are especially at risk,” UNICEF’s deputy representative in Jordan, Michele Servadei, told a press conference on Monday in one of UNICEF’s 100 child-friendly spaces in Jordan.

“We are reaching 120,000 children through psycho-social support activities. Centres like these could mean for the children a return to normality,” Servadei said while showing Müller the volunteer’s work in the centre.

An estimated 30,000 Syrian child refugees are working in Jordan, according to UNICEF.

Müller stressed the importance of investing money in children and youths, especially amid crises.

“Children and young people are the most affected by this terrible war and aftermath we are witnessing. We have a deep respect for the volunteers’ work here as the children of today are the adults of tomorrow and the crises of today are the wars of tomorrow.”