For some students in Jerash, the difficulties of getting an education do not begin at the school gate. They begin much earlier, on narrow and uneven roads, across long and exhausting distances between home and classroom, and inside residential buildings never designed to be schools but converted over the years into permanent teaching space.
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Across villages scattered on hillsides and mountain slopes, and in communities far from town centers, stable and safe schooling depends on two things: whether a student can manage the journey to get there, and whether the rented building waiting for them can offer even a minimal standard of a proper learning environment.
The Battle to Get There, and Winter's Added Toll
Recent data confirms that dozens of rented school buildings remain in use across Jerash governorate, even though their number has declined in recent years as new schools and classroom expansions have come online. According to figures recently published by the Jerash Directorate of Education, the governorate has 186 schools, 32 of them rented, serving roughly 55,000 students.
Authorities say they are building new schools, adding classrooms, and carrying out maintenance across dozens of facilities in an effort to close the gap in buildings and classroom space and reduce reliance on rented buildings. But activists and residents argue the problem is not just the number of rented buildings. It extends to their location, the adequacy of their space, courtyards and sanitation facilities, and whether they meet basic safety standards.
Resident Manar Al-Ayasrah said that in many villages and areas far from population centers, the road itself becomes part of the educational problem. Mountainous terrain, dense tree cover, rough side roads and the distance from public transport routes can turn a student's daily commute into an ordeal, she said, particularly in winter, when roads become harder to navigate and the strain increases for students and teachers alike.
Al-Ayasrah said students are often forced to travel long distances to reach their schools, and that in some cases, the distance and difficulty of the route lead to late arrivals. She said some students walk nearly six kilometers on foot because transport options are limited.
Retired teacher Issa Al-Mustafa said a school is not simply a classroom, desks and a blackboard. A modern school, he said, needs classrooms sized appropriately for the number of students, courtyards for activities and assembly, adequate sanitation facilities, laboratories, administrative offices, a library or learning resource center, spaces for extracurricular activities, and safety and evacuation provisions.
Al-Mustafa said children also need an environment that allows them to move, interact and feel part of a fully functioning educational institution, not a residential building temporarily repurposed as a school.
Al-Mustafa said rented buildings were never built for educational purposes to begin with, which means their space, design and services fall short of what a modern public school requires. Most of these buildings, he said, suffer from cramped classrooms and a lack of proper courtyards and facilities, with recurring problems in windows, doors, flooring and sanitation, issues that worsen when the building is old or was never designed to accommodate large numbers of students.
Al-Mustafa explained that a small classroom often means closely packed desks, limited movement and a harder job for teachers trying to monitor their students. The absence of courtyards, he said, shrinks the space available for school and sports activities and makes recess a different experience than it is for students at purpose-built schools. He said the success of government plans depends on accounting for geography and providing safe road infrastructure, so that every student can reach their seat in the classroom safely and without difficulty.
Activist Akram Al-Rawashdeh said privacy itself becomes a challenge when a rented building sits inside a residential area, or when a school's entrances and courtyards overlap with neighboring buildings, a problem that becomes more sensitive at girls' schools.
He said families in rural and remote areas do not think of distance simply in terms of kilometers. They see it as a matter of safety, transport, road conditions and weather. The farther a school sits from a residential cluster, he said, the more complicated it becomes to transport female students, particularly in areas without regular public transport.
Al-Rawashdeh said Jerash's scattered mountain and rural communities mean the school buildings issue cannot be separated from the school transport issue. Building a school in a remote location may relieve overcrowding at an existing school, he said, but it can create an access problem if the site lacks proper roads and transport links. He pointed to objections raised by residents over the location of a new school in Souf and Sakib, which some families said was too far from where certain students lived and too difficult to reach, even though the school itself was built to ease pressure on existing schools and improve the learning environment.
Al-Rawashdeh said the continued reliance on rented schools leaves the Ministry of Education with a further challenge: finding suitable alternative buildings, particularly in areas where student numbers do not yet justify building a large school under current planning standards.
Between Progress and Persistent Challenges: Official Projects Underway
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development acknowledges that phasing out rented buildings and identifying future needs form a core part of its strategic planning for educational infrastructure.
A source familiar with the matter said this planning includes projecting future needs for buildings and classrooms and working to eliminate rented schools, describing the issue as part of formal infrastructure planning rather than a set of scattered local demands.
The Jerash Governorate Council previously announced that the proportion of rented schools has dropped significantly compared to past years, with new schools under construction in areas including Umm Qantara, Al-Nabi Houd and Al-Junaidiyah, alongside expansion, rehabilitation and maintenance projects in remote areas.
The council said its budget includes dedicated projects for additional classrooms and land purchases for new schools, reflecting continued demand for expanded educational infrastructure and steady progress on resolving the rented schools issue in Jerash.
Observers say the importance of a school's location and access road doubles in winter, since Jerash's mountainous and forested terrain leaves some areas vulnerable to rain, slopes, mud and difficult secondary roads. They said any assessment of school buildings should not be separated from an assessment of the roads leading to them, along with drainage, lighting, traffic safety, and the presence of sidewalks or safe pathways for students.
Wael Abu Azzam, director of education and human resources development in Jerash governorate, said the directorate received five new school buildings at the start of the 2026/2027 academic year, part of its plan to expand educational facilities, improve the school environment, and gradually phase out rented schools.
Abu Azzam said in press remarks that the newly received schools include Nahla Basic School for Boys, built under the Royal Initiatives projects, with 12 classrooms, an administrative wing, laboratories and courtyards; Al-Mastabah Secondary School, with 17 classrooms, an administrative wing, laboratories and courtyards; and Al-Farwan Basic Mixed School, with 15 classrooms, an administrative wing, laboratories and courtyards.
He said the directorate also received the completed Ali bin Abi Talib School, with 17 classrooms, an administrative wing and courtyards, along with Sakib Basic Mixed School, which has 24 classrooms, an administrative wing, courtyards and laboratories. Abu Azzam said the Asma bint Yazid School project is 10 percent complete, on a site spanning approximately 7,890 square meters.
Abu Azzam said the directorate has carried out several classroom addition projects at a cost of roughly 1.345 million dinars, including a hospitality wing at Hassan Al-Kayed Secondary Vocational School for Boys, six additional classrooms each at Muqbila Basic Mixed School and Al-Nabi Houd Basic Mixed School, and four additional classrooms at Al-Junaidiyah Basic Mixed School.
He said the directorate has simultaneously carried out maintenance and rehabilitation work at a number of its schools, aimed at improving readiness, upgrading facilities and providing a more suitable learning environment for students and staff.
Abu Azzam said the Jerash Directorate of Education oversees 187 government schools, 32 of them rented, and that the continued construction of new school buildings and additional classrooms is part of efforts to address school infrastructure needs and reduce reliance on rented buildings.
