AMMAN — Jordan and the US launched a technical program, which will complement the
direct financing of education, youth activities and enhancing the Jordanian
government’s capacities.
اضافة اعلان
USAID Jordan Deputy Mission Director Margaret Spears
joined Minister of Youth Mohammad Al-Nabulsi and Ministry of Education
Secretary-General Dr Nawaf Al-Ajarmeh to launch USAID’s Technical Assistance Program.
The program will support the Jordanian government in
technical areas, such as Arabic literacy and numeracy, science, and English,
and in operational areas including procurement, human resources, and
information management, Spears told reporters at the launching ceremony.
She said the program will also improve the
government’s ability to efficiently budget, plan, and implement its own
reforms.
“The Technical Assistance Program represents a key
area of collaboration that enables the Government of Jordan to effectively lead
and manage education and youth reforms,” Spears said.
Jordan’s ministry of education will specifically
benefit from the program because it will assist it in improving its teaching
practices, school leadership and management, Spears said.
Earlier this year, she pointed out, the program
provided assistance to administer a diagnostic study of Arabic literacy and
mathematics to assess learning loss for students in grades four through six.
The findings from this study will be instrumental as
the ministry of education addresses learning losses after prolonged
COVID-19-related school closures, Spears explained.
With support from the program, the ministry of youth
recently established a Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, which will enhance evidence-based
decision-making systems and improve the evaluation process of the ministry’s
field programs across 200 youth centers, the USAID said.
The Unit facilitates data exchange and communication
internally and across field directorates and centers, according to Spears and
her assistants. The Unit will also integrate key activities from the National
Youth Strategy 2019–2025 to ensure proper and impactful implementation.
Spears along with the two Jordanian officials
praised their partnership and commitment to capacity building and improving
effective service delivery to children and youth throughout the Kingdom.
Spears told
Jordan News that the technical
Assistance Program 2021–2026, with a budget of $39.9 million, is in partnership
with the ministries of education, youth and the Creative Associates
International, an international development organization.
This project ensures that government partners have
the necessary skills and resources to affect change in the education and youth
sectors and increase institutional capacity, Spears explained.
She said working with the ministry of education to
address the learning gap mainly in four subjects, namely Arabic, English,
Science, and mathematics, which pass through two approaches; diagnosis
assessment from grades four through six, and developing a program for teachers
to help students in the classroom to get what they missed during the pandemic.
Ajarmeh, the ministry of education
secretary-general, told
Jordan News that during the pandemic, his
ministry was keen “not to stop schools, so the solution was through distant
learning”.
“When the students returned to schools, there was an
educational loss, so USAID, in partnership with the ministry of education,
introduced a three-year program, which began in the second semester to
compensate students for two academic years without affecting the current
academic year,” he added.
He said the process focused on the basic concept of
preparation for subsequent learning.
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