Sector: Education and Education Reform
Region: North Africa and the Middle East
Funded by:
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Total Value: C$13.9 million
Partners and Counterparts:
In Jordan: The Ministry of Education
The SJE project goal is to strengthen Jordan’s human resources to support its transition to a knowledge-based economy, thus contributing to poverty reduction and promotion of peace and security. We aim to build sustainable capacity in the MOE for the continuing quality improvement of curriculum, instruction, learning and assessment, focusing on ICT as a transforming and integrating technology, in conformity with the Government of Jordan’s ERfKE strategy.
The Ministry of Education is engaged in a major reform of education at all basic and secondary education levels, including the introduction of kindergarten education, within the context of an effort to devolve more responsibility to field directorates and schools. The ministry has promulgated a broad and demanding National Education Strategy (2007–2011) and the SJE project aims to enable some key aspects of the strategy at the district and school levels. The primary focus is to model mechanisms and processes that provide for a more decentralized education management system, including greater participation by parents and the community.
The ministry has provided the project with the opportunity to concentrate inputs in five field directorates in order to ascertain management practices that can be assumed readily within the field directorates and schools. The experience gained in applying technical improvements at these levels will be used by the ministry for its longer-term reform program. Improvements include a strong emphasis on performance management, ICT integration, gender mainstreaming and school-based management.
SJE is focused on six target outcomes. These provide the basis for the work that has been undertaken to date and the activities planned for the remainder of the project. Each outcome is addressed from the context of intensive inputs into selected districts following a conceptual model based on “whole district and whole school” development. There is a heavy emphasis on strategic and operational policy as well as the implementation mechanisms that provide for districts and schools to assume greater responsibility and accountability for a quality education.
1. Improved foundation and application of national education directives within the context of an articulated policy framework, medium-term and annual planning strategies, system indicators and socialization/feedback mechanisms.
2. Strengthened governance and administration of education, including the appropriate devolution of authority to district and local school levels and the empowerment of school principals, teachers and their communities as educational change agents.
3. Sustainable capacity in the MOE to support continuous improvement in curriculum, instruction, learning and assessment, and to use appropriate education information to monitor progress and inform education policy, planning and system management.
4. Reformed curriculum Grades 1–12 shifted from a top-down emphasis on content to a classroom-based emphasis on learning outcomes based on curriculum reflecting student-centred learning and gender-sensitive strategies.
5. Innovative pre- and in-service teacher and sector-wide administrator training programs that support progressive instructional and management practices to meet education reform objectives, including the appropriate use of ICT as delivery tool.
6. Improved teaching and learning in Jordan’s public schools, relevant to its ICT-based economic development strategy and consistent with the integration of ITC into curriculum as a tool to enhance teaching and learning in selected subjects.
The project has been recognized by the ministry, the World Bank Review Missions and the Royal Commission on Education as a key initiative in supporting the education reform objectives. The primary successes relate to the enabling of field directorates and schools to establish and implement improvement planning in key areas of performance. Of particular significance is the extent to which the approach used by SJE has generated strong commitment and support from all MOE units, from principals, teachers and students and also from parents and community members.
Gayle Turner
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