Supporting education for all in Jordan

06 August 2019

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Schoolgirls smile and wave in a bus in Aqaba, Jordan.

In Jordan, strong efforts are underway to ensure that every child, no matter who they are, has access to education and receives the support needed to succeed. However, this commitment has often strained government and community capacities, including in the education sector.

In this context, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) and the Jordanian Ministry of Education (MoE) held a technical workshop in early July 2019 on strengthening education sector planning and management capacities. The four-day workshop took place in Jordan’s northern city of Irbid and brought together some 60 education planners, supervisors, managers, and decentralization committee representatives from the four governorates of Irbid, Jerash, Aljoun, and Mafraq.

Local realities do not always match the central Ministry’s ambitious development objectives.
-A workshop participant

The workshop provided a unique opportunity for local education planners to ensure the coherence between Jordan’s national Education Strategic Plan (2018-2022) and local education strategies as reflected in the School and Directorate Development Plans. Participants reported that they valued the exchange of experiences among central, governorate, and field directorate education experts. This included important discussions on challenges and best practices in operational planning and the opportunity to align the different planning efforts at central and local levels. This is of particular importance as one of the participants said that local “realities do not always match the central Ministry’s ambitious development objectives.”

The workshop came at a timely moment as Jordan is increasingly devolving government responsibilities to decentralized authorities. This requires new ways of working, including “harmonizing directives received from different government bodies” as stated by the Director of Planning and decision-making that includes learners, teachers, and communities to build and ensure a safe learning environment for all. To this end, the participants analysed the effects of natural hazards and other risks, including displacement and terrorism on education, and drew from the Ministry’s Crisis and Risk Management strategy to identify specific strategies that respond to their local needs.

IIEP-UNESCO
Participants working in groups during the workshop.

 

The central Ministry of Education provided several inputs on Jordan’s most recent policy developments and planning tools. These included updates on the Ministry’s OpenEMIS system, school mapping, and GIS efforts.

At the end of the workshop, the participants identified new strategies to address challenges in costing and resource distribution, resource mobilization, community involvement, coordination with other ministries, joint needs assessments, information sharing, and monitoring of implementation of education plans.

Moving forward, the Ministry of Education and IIEP will continue to work with local education planners, supervisors, managers, and governorate level decentralization committee members to standardize operational planning tools and practices across the Kingdom. IIEP’s support to Jordan is part of the Institute’s three-year programme with the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI).