Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
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in several ERfKE components has occurred, the implementation was far from complete and was
hindered, amongst other reasons, by the Syrian crisis. Therefore these components were brought
forward through the next educational strategy document for 2016-2025, the National Strategy for
Human Resource Development plan (NSHRD or simply HRD)396. Aligned with the Jordan 2025
Vision, the HRD inputted the evaluation of the ERfKE and the implementation has been taken into
account from the start by defining who will have ownership of the various sets of projects, the
sequencing and the practical activities and the resources required. General overview will be
carried out with an HRD Reform Board and an independent HRD Results and Effectiveness Unit
will act as watch-dog of the entire reform.
Response to the Syria Crisis
As a response to the Syria crisis, Jordan prepared a National Resilience Plan (NRP) in 2014 and by
end 2014, the JordanResponse Platform for the Syria Crisis (JRPSC) was created. Any newprojects
by NGOs and international organisations need to be submitted for approval to the government
which will gauge them against the JRP framework, thus limiting the duplication of efforts and
amplifying synergies. All projects aimed at providing assistance to refugees should also benefit
the hosting community and at least 30% of beneficiaries should be Jordanians.
The education component of the JRP focuses on access, quality of school and increasing the
government’s capacity to plan and deliver education for all given the extra pressures brought on
the system. Examples of access to school projects include two nation-wide “Learning-for-All”
campaigns which were conducted to encourage enrolment, identify out-of-school children and
provide referral and registration support. The JRP’s education plan also includes non-
formal/remedial/catch-up classes for children for example the joint MoE-UNICEF “Catch up”
program, a program for children who have missed 3 or more years of education and so cannot
enrol in formal schools (see Annex 4 for details). Another example is the UNICEF supported
Makani “My Space”397. With an estimated 50,000 school-aged Syrian children not eligible to join
the formal school system, the Makanis constitute an alternative, innovative approach to
expanding learning opportunities for out-of-school children (see Annex 4 for details).
Violence in schools: Demand-side Policy example
As seen earlier, violence in schools was an often cited reason to drop out, especially in boys
schools. The Ma’an campaign is a national campaign to reduce violence by teachers against
children and promote a NewWay of Discipline and its evaluation showed it had significant effects
on curbing violence in schools398.
396CHRD (2016)
397 UNICEF 2016 TOR for Makani Assessment Review
398 Evaluation report should be officially available in July 2017.