Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
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system is ‘emerging’ in several aspects including the budget: the MoE provides the majority of the
budget and controls some items but there is some level of decentralisation as a portion of the
school operational budget that is prepared by the principal though he/she is not required to
consult parents or community members in the preparation or execution of the budget. Coupled
with the fact that there is no school assessment in Jordan to evaluate overall school performance
nor stakeholder accountability mechanisms, nor routine monitoring and evaluation mechanisms,
this lack of parental/community involvement means that principals have few incentives for
performance and efficient use of budgets, and the system in general is not geared towards
enhancing its effectiveness. Additional issues with respect to governance, access and quality of
schooling include the lack of data tracking systems of at-risk of drop-out children and a lack of
enforcement of laws regarding access376.
Teachers’ management: The current teachers management system does not incentivize
training, good performance and results377 and appraisals seem to prioritise textbook completion
over performance. Teachers who assume more leadership responsibilities or carry out
extracurricular activities beyond their basic job do not receive extra allowances. While career
progression is nominally linked to indicators like performance, training and results, it is not
widely implemented378. This lack of correlation between performance and remuneration, coupled
with the difficult teaching conditions, demotivates teachers and they do not seek to attend training
or self-development courses.
Administrative Barriers:
Registration. As a result of the 2006 and 2013 amendments to the Education Act, non-Jordanian
Arab students can be admitted into Jordanian public schools if they register with certain legal
documents (e.g. residency card or refugees’ civil registration card). This created a major hurdle
for access to education as many parents are reluctant to provide registration documents for fear
of deportation. Rules are also slightly different for the different nationalities of refugees (Syrians
vs Iraqis vs Palestinians vs Yemenis), which adds to the general confusion. In 2016, the need to
provide certain documentation from refugees was lifted. However, it may take a while for refugee
parents to be aware of this new rule and to ‘trust the system’ and feel comfortable enrolling their
children.
3 year gap - age rule. Children can be admitted to a grade level only if their age is a maximum of 3
years above the regular age for that grade. For instance, a child can only enrol in grade 1 (regular
age 6) up to the age of 12. A 15-year-old child cannot therefore enrol in grade 3 (age 8) as he/she
would be over the 3 year gap threshold. Given that many refugee children have missed schooling
for different periods of time, this rule seriously impacts their access to formal schools. If the age
threshold is exceeded, they can be enrolled in the non-formal education programmes offered by
376 NCHRD (2016)
377 NCHRD (2016)
378 NCHRD (2016)