Teachers have major role in uniting Jordanians — Thneibat

AMMAN — Teachers should seize the opportunity of addressing more than 2 million Jordanians every day to unite the internal front by instilling the values of dialogue, integrity, modernisation and good citizenship, Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat said Saturday.

At a coordination meeting held by the Jordan Education Initiative (JEI), Thneibat added that the Kingdom's external front is protected by the army, but internal cohesion should be the responsibility of educators, who constitute 27 per cent of the population, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The JEI is a public-private partnership that envisions accelerated education reform through technology integration.

During the meeting, JEI CEO Nermine Nabulsi noted that the initiative, one of the education initiatives launched by Her Majesty Queen Rania, has managed to develop an educational model in 177 public schools in cooperation with its partners, according to Petra.

JEI was launched in partnership with the World Economic Forum in 2003, aiming to leverage public-private partnerships to equip Jordan’s classrooms with computer technology and inspire cutting- edge curricula, as well as training teachers in more student-centred methods.

Yusour Hassan, director of the King Abdullah II Fund for Development’s Democratic Empowerment Programme (Demoqrati), said Demoqrati has been working hand-in-hand with the JEI to promote volunteerism and dialogue at 92 schools, benefiting more than 1,850 students so far.

At the end of the meeting, Thneibat honoured directors of education departments and school principals in which the JEI is implemented, according to Petra.