Jordan EDUCATION
Training in catering at a community college in Amman
The government's good intentions in the area of education
contended with straitened financial circumstances, a rapidly
changing labor force, and the demographic problem of a youthful
population (53 percent of the population was below the age of
fifteen in 1988). Nevertheless, significant progress had been made
in various spheres. Education has been a stated priority of the
government for a number of years. In 1986 government expenditures
on education were 12.2 percent of the national budget. Education
has become widely available, although some observers have
questioned both the quality of the instruction and the
appropriateness of the curriculum to the economy's requirements.
Recognizing the need to supply training more suited to realistic
employment prospects and to improve the level of teacher training,
the government was continuing to strengthen vocational and
technical education and to provide in-service training for its
teachers.
In 1921, when the Amirate of Transjordan was created,
educational facilities consisted of twenty-five religious schools
that provided a rather limited education. By 1987 there were 3,366
schools, with more than 39,600 teachers and an enrollment of
919,645 students. Nearly one-third of the population in 1987 was
involved in education as a teacher or a student at home or abroad
(see
table 2, Appendix). In 1985 nearly 99 percent of the nation's
six-to-twelve years-olds were in the primary cycle, nearly 79
percent of the twelve-to-fifteen-year-olds were in the preparatory
cycle, and 37 percent of the fifteen-to-eighteen-year-olds were in
the secondary cycle (see
table 3, Appendix). Progress in literacy
was impressive. The Encyclopedia of the Third World, edited
by George T. Kurian, reported that in the mid-1980s Jordan had a
67.6 percent literacy rate, 81 percent for males and 59.3 percent
for females. The gap between rural and urban areas in terms of
literacy was closing, but rural levels remained below those of the
urban areas; Maan Governorate lagged behind other rural areas.
Education was free and compulsory for children between the ages
of six and fifteen. The educational ladder consisted of four parts:
primary (grades one through six); preparatory (grades seven through
nine); secondary (grades ten through twelve); and postsecondary
(all higher education). Promotion from the compulsory cycle to the
more specialized secondary schools was controlled by a standardized
written examination, as was passage from secondary to the
postsecondary programs. The Ministry of Education, which controlled
all aspects of education (except community colleges), administered
the examinations. For grades one through twelve, nearly 75 percent
of the students attended the free government schools in the late
1980s; about 15 percent attended the UNRWA schools, also free; and
about 10 percent attended private schools. In 1987 the Department
of Statistics reported that there were 194 UNRWA schools and 682
private schools.
The primary curriculum stressed basic literacy skills. Subjects
taught included reading and writing in Arabic; religion (Islam for
Muslims and the appropriate religion for non-Muslims); arithmetic;
civics and history, with emphasis on the history of the Arabs and
the concept of the Arab nation; geography, with emphasis on the
Arab countries; science; music; physical education; and drawing for
male students and embroidery for females. In the fifth grade,
English was added to the official curriculum (although many private
schools taught it earlier) and some schools offered French. Within
the primary cycle, promotion from grade to grade was required by
law and was essentially automatic. Children could be held back only
twice in six years, after which they proceeded to higher grades
regardless of the quality of their work.
In the preparatory cycle, work on academic subjects continued,
both to improve the skills of terminal students and to prepare
those going on to secondary studies. In addition, vocational
education began on a limited basis. Each school was required to
provide at least one course in a vocational subject for each grade.
In general, each school offered only one vocational option, and all
students had to take that subject for three periods a week for
three years. The preparatory curriculum added geometry, algebra,
and social studies to the academic courses offered in the primary
grades.
On completion of the ninth grade, students could sit for the
public preparatory examination for promotion to the secondary
level. Secondary education was somewhat selective in enrollment and
quite specialized in purpose. This level had both academic
(general) and vocational divisions; the former was designed to
prepare students for university-level studies and the latter to
train middle-level technical personnel for the work force. Within
the academic curriculum, students further specialized in scientific
or literary studies. Because of the specialized nature and
relatively limited number of secondary facilities, male and female
students did not necessarily attend separate schools. The secondary
program culminated in the public secondary education examination,
which qualified students for postsecondary study.
In 1987 around 69,000 students were enrolled in higher
education. Nearly half of these were women. Jordan had four
universities with a combined enrollment of nearly 29,000; more than
one-third of the students were women (11,000). The University of
Jordan in Amman had a 1986-87 enrollment of nearly 13,000 students;
Yarmuk University in Irbid had nearly 12,000 students; Jordan
University of Science and Technology in Ar Ramtha had nearly 3,000
students; and Mutah University near Al Karak had an enrollment of
about 1,300.
In the 1980s, Jordan strove to implement an education system
that would address serious structural problems in its labor force.
The country faced high rates of unemployment among educated young
people, particularly in the professions of medicine, engineering,
and teaching, and also had a need for skilled technical labor. In
the 1970s and 1980s, the government began to expand its vocational
and technical training programs to counteract the skilled labor
shortage brought about by the large-scale migration of workers to
high-paying jobs in the oil-producing countries of the Persian Gulf
and Saudi Arabia. In spite of the recession and high unemployment
among professionals, skilled technical labor remained in short
supply in the late 1980s. Cultural factors also played a prominent
role; great prestige attached to academic higher education as
opposed to vocational training.
In response to the need for education reform, the king called
for a reorientation of education policy to meet the needs of the
country and the people. Community colleges played an essential role
in this reorientation. They were consonant with the cultural value
placed on higher education and also helped provide a skilled
technical labor force. In the early 1980s, the government's teacher
training institutes and all other private and public training
institutes were transformed into community colleges. These
education institutions offered a variety of vocational, technical,
and teacher training programs and granted associates degrees based
on two years of study. Upon graduation students were eligible to
apply for transfer to the university system if they wished. In the
late 1980s, more than fifty-three community colleges operated under
the Ministry of Higher Education, which was created in 1985 to
regulate the operations of all community colleges, although
individual colleges were administered by a variety of agencies.
Scattered throughout the country, the community colleges had an
enrollment of about 31,000 students, slightly more than half of all
students in higher education. More than half their students, about
17,000, were women.
Nearly 100 areas of specialization were offered in nine
categories of professional study: education, commerce, computers,
communications and transportation, engineering, paramedical
technologies, agriculture, hotel management, and social service
professions. According to observers, graduates were able to find
employment in industry, business, and government. The government
sought to confront the issue of unemployment among university
graduates by encouraging more students to join community colleges.
In 1987 the government introduced a career guidance program in the
secondary schools that explained the country's problems with
unemployment.
Most Jordanian students in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
were studying medicine and engineering. Some observers have
suggested that many of the students in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union were Palestinians whose education costs were being
borne by the host government. Observers believed that most of the
students in Western Europe and the United States were being
financed by their families and the rest by the government of
Jordan. Perhaps because of these connections, students from West
European and American schools tended to obtain the more desirable
and prestigious positions on their return home. The perceived
higher quality of education in the West also was a factor in making
these graduates more competitive in the job market.
Data as of December 1989
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