No delaying this one

Her Majesty Queen Rania stressed the need for reforming Jordan’s education system at a meeting with a group of teachers and members of the National Committee for Human Resources Development on Sunday, highlighting the urgency with which such process should be embarked upon if the country is not to be left behind the fast-pace advancements in the sector around the world.

Discussed were several key issues related to education reform, particularly pre-school education, curricula and the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi), and both grievances and solutions were presented.

Important now is to analyse these carefully, see where the hitches are and how to approach them, and get down to work, for, as the Queen said, when it comes to educational reforms, there is no time for patience and procrastination as every year lost without carrying out essential reforms means depriving a large group of students of good quality education.

Problem is, good quality education comes from good educators, and there seems to be broad agreement, among practitioners in this field and the public in general, that the level of preparation of many teachers, particularly in the public schools, but not limited to, is well below the par.

So in this egg and chicken impasse, reform-oriented people need to take a step back, assess long and hard what needs to be done and do it even if it is painful.

Sure, insufficiently prepared teachers should not be allowed to graduate, let alone teach. But who are they taught by in the first place? 

Who educates the educators? And further down the chain, what level of education do pupils achieve from mediocre, or less, teachers?

Low-quality input results in even lower-quality outcome. Simple.

So a process should be instated whereby teachers — at all levels of education, from pre-school to postgraduate — need to pass yearly tests in their fields. If they are not up to it, they simply cannot be allowed to continue teaching.

Upgrading is not going to work if the basis is shaky. It may sound cold hearted, but when it comes to educating generations on which the country depends, one cannot be too generous or sentimental.

Ignorance is no bliss. It is a bane whose consequences we witness all around, these days assuming scarier dimensions as victim to false ideology preached by ruthless, ignorant miscreants.

To start clean, excellent education should be provided from an early age to all children, and the standard should not be allowed to fall.

Of course, it is also a financial matter, both for citizens and for the country, but if the failing education system — the same we once used to be so proud of and that produced the calibre of people constantly lured by greener pastures — is to be fixed, money has to be poured into it.

The government should allocate substantial amounts of money from its budget to make education reform possible.

And with the right mechanism of checks and balances, with the right people supervising the process, the country cannot go wrong.

But it needs to start somewhere, and start now.

Determination and perseverance are needed to transform poor quality education into an advanced and enlightened one.

All aspects — kindergarten, higher education, vocational training — need to figure highly on the list of reforms.

Vocational training is outdated and attracts only low-grade students. In the developed world, its graduates often earn higher salaries than people with university education.

University education in Jordan also requires great attention, as it has not only not improved in recent years, it has, sadly, greatly regressed. 

Above all, students of any age need new perspectives on life and the world around them.

They need to be introduced to modern sciences and humanities in order to develop a well-rounded, science-based knowledge of the world. 

Reforming religious teaching is also urgent, with added care needed in the process of vetting those who affect such reform.

“Education is the best kind of immunity we can give our youth to face the challenges around them,” said the Queen.

Seeing these challenges multiply by the day, we cannot continue to sit idle by and hope that things will change on their own.