Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
255
Supply-side
Access and schools supply. Refugees and vulnerable Jordanians. In order to cope with the
increased educational demands stemming from the refugee influx, the response to the Syrian
crisis included539:
- Formal education: 44 schools were set up in refugee camps, 198 double-shift schools
established by the MoE.
- Non-formal education: 47 catch-up centres served 1,000 children with another 1,620
children enrolling in the MOE-certified NFE program.
- Informal education: Over 150 in Makani centres were established and the program is
still being scaled up.
Early Childhood Education. As seen mentioned earlier, there is a significant under-supply of
government provided KG1 and KG2 infrastructure, with the majority of physical infrastructure
for ECE offered by the private sector. ERfKE II included plans to create kindergarten sections in
existing primary and secondary schools, using space available at many underutilized schools and
piloting double-shift schools in schools that are not already double-shift540 . As shortages persist
at the end of ERfKE II, the HRD strategy plan included a major sub-component of the ECE
program focusing on the upgrade of existing pre-primary school facilities as well as the
expansion of such facilities across the country.
Non-Formal Education. Under ERfKE I and in partnership with Questscope, the MoE
established a Non-Formal Education in 2003 in order to offer an accredited alternative pathway
to children who have been out of school for too long and thus are not eligible to return to formal
education according to MoE regulations. “From 2003 to 2016, more than 13,000 young people
have enrolled in NFE, and more than 500 MoE teachers received training as NFE facilitators to
build the human resource capacity of MoE for the program”541.
539 Brussels (2017) and UNICEF TOR
540 UNICEF(2014)
541 NCHRD (2016)
542 QuestScope (2011)
543 The first cycle (IFE) is particularly important for building youths’ trust, confidence and enthusiasm for learning
Box 13 MoE Non-Formal Education in partnership with Questscope
Goal. To reintegrate socially and economically marginalised young people that are not attending
formal schools and offer alternative pathways of development.
Programme. QS NFE serves out-of-school youth typically from low-income communities, ages
13-18 for males and 13-21 for females542 . The 2-year program consists of three 8-month
education cycles based on participatory learning methodology. Educationally, the 1st cycle
corresponds with academic content in grades 1-4543, the 2nd cycle with grades 5-7, and the 3rd