New public school calendar makes up for lost time

AMMAN — The newly amended school calendar for the 2019/2020 school year was approved by the Central Planning Committee of the Ministry of Education on Tuesday, giving students only a week-long winter break.

With the conclusion of the teachers' one-month strike, the first day of public school was on October 6, forcing the Ministry of Education to create an amended scholastic calendar to compensate for missed classes in public schools. 

According to the new calendar, the first term's final exams will begin on January 22, 2020 and end on February 8, 2020, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In order to make up for lost class time, public school students will be given only one week of winter break, starting on February 9 and ending on February 13 the ministry said. 

Second-term classes will begin on February 16, 2020, according to the updated ministry calendar. The final exams for the second semester will now be from June 4-22, with June 30 as the deadline for submitting marks and students' certificates, according to Petra.

The first day of summer vacation is set to for July 1.

The ministry has adjusted the 2019/2020 school year calendar as per article 40 of the Education Law No. 3 of 1994 and its amendments, which stipulate that the minimum number of study days should range from 195-200, Petra said.

Private, UNRWA-run and military schools, as well as the night-school programme for Syrian refugees will keep the ministry's old calendar, as they began school on September 1, the ministry stated.  

The amended scholastic calendar will be circulated to all education directorates, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Education Ministry Spokesperson Walid Jallad said that the General School Certificate Exam (Tawjihi) schedule will be released separately as usual, noting that the scholastic calendar usually does not include the Tawjihi schedule, according to Petra.

Tawjihi's 2019 session started on June 11 and finished on July 1.