AMMAN — A government statement warning private schools
against withholding access to online learning for students whose guardians have
defaulted on tuition payments was received with support and relief.
اضافة اعلان
The Monday statement issued by the Ministry of Education
forbade private schools from blocking online learning platforms from students
who have not paid tuition.
Legal proceedings for schools that violate this rule could
vary from a warning to closure of the school, according to the statement.
The ministry has the power to refer any violating entities
to the competent court, which can impose a fine between JD10,000 and JD100,000.
The statement specified that schools cannot withhold
students’ files, access to tests and exams, or access to the online learning
platforms if those students have not paid tuition. Jordan hosts around 3,600
private schools, according to a previous interview with Reem Aslan, gender
technical specialist at the International Labor Organization.
“Some private schools
may block the distance education service” in order to pressure parents and
guardians to pay tuition, said Maha Al-Khatib, principal of Al-Hikmeh Secondary
School. However, she pointed out that this practice is forbidden by the MoE
because “the student is not a party to financial matters between the school and
the parent. And the guardian can file a complaint with the Private Education
Department in the event the service is blocked.”
According to Khatib, schools can file lawsuits against
parents and guardians to collect overdue payments, but this takes time — which
may lead schools to resort to withholding online education “as a quick
procedure to pressure the guardian.”
Ahmad, who attends a private school in Jordan, said that
teachers in his school told students they would be banned from Microsoft Teams
if they had not paid tuition for the previous year. Since the pandemic, all
coursework is conducted using Microsoft Teams, the 12th-grader said, so this
effectively bans students from attending lessons.
In an interview with Jordan News, he derided “the greed, the
cruelty of the owners of private schools, their failure to take into account
the situation, and the concern of the parents, in light of the current
circumstances and the difficult living conditions that afflict most families in
Jordan.”
“How do you deprive students in the last stages of their
school of education?” he asked, adding that the quality of free public
education has also declined.
MP Bilal Momany, head of the education committee at the
Lower House, said that they have not received complaints about the blocking of
online education platforms by private schools. “However, we support the
Ministry’s decision because private schools don’t have the right to suspend
online education for students, in a time when online platforms are the only
mean of education nowadays,” he said in an interview with Jordan News.
“The financial rights of the schools and the student’s right
to education should not be confused nor be correlated,” he said, echoing
Khatib. “We realize the private schools are going through a difficult time but
this should not affect the students’ right to education.”
Likewise, “If there is a problem with the tuition fees, it
has nothing to do with the student,” said Dana Abu Qora, secretary general of
the Islamic Educational College, which oversees eleven separate not-for-profit
private schools. “No way on earth would we stop the online platforms for the
students.” She explained that if families pay tuition, the school follows up
administratively with the parents before possibly pursuing legal action — but
never involves the students.
“The main mission for schools is to offer a quality
education for the students,” she went on. “Blocking online tutoring or
platforms from students I think is not aligned with the mission of teaching,”
which she described as a “noble cause”.
She explained that although the pandemic has caused some
families to struggle to pay for tuition, the school has adjusted to this by
providing “flexibility” for families in need.
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