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AMMAN — The Eurasian Silk Road Universities Consortium (ESRUC) on Wednesday celebrated the opening ceremony of its 7th Annual Convention, held at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) under the theme “Bridging cultures between Arab and world universities".

Running through April 28, the ESRUC convention provides a platform for the promotion of a greater understanding of the value of cultural diversity and cross-cultural connection, supporting the preservation of the material and intangible heritage of all ESRUC members, according to the ESRUC website.

The convention’s inaugural ceremony saw the attendance of over 50 academics from Jordan, Palestine, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, in addition to Turkish Ambassador to Jordan Murat Karagöz and Higher Education Minister Adel Tweisi.

Conveying his greetings to PSUT for holding the convention, Tweisi said: “This encounter will lead to the exchange of experiences that will contribute to the enrichment of the expertise of our universities,” stressing the role of the Jordanian higher education sector in “bringing comprehensive development in a range of fields”.

"The globalisation process has caused rapid and extensive changes in the world, increasing the political and economic pressures, in addition to the displacement of people from their homelands and the limitation of their freedoms,” Ataturk University's President Ömer Çomaklı said, stressing the need for “dialogue, peace, equality and human rights" to put an end to this situation.

“This can only be achieved through further access to culture and knowledge,” he added, calling for the collaboration between countries to “put the field of higher education to good use for the benefit of fellow nations”.

Elaborating on his country's ties with Jordan, Karagöz said: “The exchange we have achieved up to this point is still not enough and, if we want to keep on fostering this relationship, it is our obligation to place our impetus on higher education and heritage as tools to overcome prejudices.”

"When we talk about the Silk Road, it is normal for people to think about trade — but we should not forget that its most important legacy lies in its role to bring people and their cultures together," the ambassador continued.

PSUT President Mashhoor Refai thanked ESRUC and Ataturk University for choosing his university as the host of the convention, highlighting its “excellent” relations with Turkish educational institutions and its internationalisation through a total of 22 exchange programmes. 

Connecting eastern and western nations, ESRUC brings together 250 universities from more than 35 countries with the aim of strengthening cooperation in the fields of scientific research and cultural exchange, in addition to building stronger economies in the member countries. 

AMMAN — Japan on Wednesday announced a new provision of its emergency grant aid to UNHCR and UNICEF, at a total value of $2 million for continued emergency humanitarian assistance in Jordan, an embassy statement said. Under the new emergency grant aid, UNHCR and UNICEF each received $1 million towards providing primary healthcare services, lifesaving vaccinations, nutrition and paediatric medical services for Syrians.

“The Government of Japan has again shown its generosity towards providing assistance to those affected by the Syrian conflict,” said UNHCR Representative Stefano Severe, adding that the grant will ensure “timely assistance through UNHCR to provide Syrians in dire need with life-saving medical services”. For his part, UNICEF Jordan representative Robert Jenkins, noted: “Children are suffering the most from the prolonged Syrian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of girls and boys in Jordan struggling every day to meet their basic needs,” thanking the Japanese government for its constant support.

AMMAN — The Ministry of Health on Wednesday urged the public, especially children and those with chronic diseases, to take precautions as dust-laden winds pass through the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The statement called for implementing preventive measures to avoid respiratory diseases, noting that asthma patients and those suffering from seasonal allergy could experience an intensifying in symptoms.

The ministry urged patients to avoid staying outdoors for a long time during dusty weather and to head to hospitals in cases of emergency.

AMMAN — Twenty two Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) from Karak, Zarqa, Mafraq and Amman this week completed a series of capacity-building workshops by meeting potential donors with whom they discussed future funding opportunities.

In the final workshop of the Middle East Partnership Initiative’s civil society project carried out by the West Asia-North Africa (WANA) Institute, the CBOs received critical feedback from a number of donors including the German Agency for International Cooperation, CARE, UNDP, UNHCR and the Middle East Partnership Initiative, among others.

The final presentation on project budgeting followed a number of trainings started in September 2017 on community development, human rights, research methods, problem assessment, project design and proposal writing, as well as monitoring and evaluation, said Mahmoud Nabulsi, WANA’s civil society team leader.

“After each training, the CBOs carried out a work assignment under the supervision of the WANA’s team which guaranteed the correct implementation of the theories explained during the workshops,” he told The Jordan Times after the session, noting that "at the beginning, the CBOs had some challenges in submitting the assignment as it was their first time putting the knowledge into practice, but they quickly got used to it and found the technical feedback very beneficial". 

A participant in the training, Amal Al Sayed from the Society for Community Development, expressed her happiness with the benefits of the programme, which she said “contributed to her organisation’s collaboration in a joint project with the Ministry of Social Development which will help her develop a training toolkit and implement training workshops on addressing violence alternatives for women prisoners". 

 “The workshop on developing financial and administrative policies was particularly useful to me as I have become familiar with what the donors are asking for in terms of administrative requirement and budgeting, all of that through a participatory hands-on approach,” she said, adding “the variety of sessions included in the project helped us gain both practical skills such as project design and a number of networking opportunities with large international institutions and important local institutions such as the Hayat-RASED Centre.” 

For Nabulsi, the programme was a great success in terms of “setting up networking opportunities between associations and donors”. 

He expressed WANA’s keeness to “continue cooperating with the associations and involve them in future programmes that contribute to their development”.

Programme Director of the German Foundation for Civil Peace Service in Jordan Karim Al Thabet, whose organisation's programme focuses on CBOs at the governorate level, called on associations to “recognise their identity within their community and legal framework” and to “continuously communicate with their local communities in order to provide them with the best suited services”.

“The WANA Institute’s training has contributed to building the capacity of these associations and supports the process of representative communication," he commented, underscoring the importance for CBOs to enhance their cooperation with existing local bodies.

Al Thabet stressed the need for CBOs to “change their structure in terms of quantity and quality, by increasing the number of their employees and volunteers, in order to achieve the goals of their programmes and donors optimally”.

AMMAN — The National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) on Saturday held the first social dialogue session on the collective bargaining agreement and unified labour contract for private school teachers, which saw the attendance of representatives from the Ministry of Labour, the Social Security Institution and the Education Ministry. 

Organised with the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the session covered the challenges faced by both school owners and teachers in the private sector, discussing the renewal of the current collective bargaining agreement and unified contract. 

The agreement was signed last year in accordance with the provisions of the Labour Law No. 8 of 1996 and its amendments between the General Union of Private Schools Owners and the General Union of Workers in Special Education. 

Gender consultant at the ILO Reem Aslan told The Jordan Times that the discussion was held upon request by a group of teachers asking to consider their rights while discussing the challenges faced by private school owners in implementing the provisions of the agreement. 

“The current agreement covers the annual raise and the need to transfer the teachers’ salaries to their bank accounts,” Aslan said, adding that “the period of the unified contract will finish with the end of the present academic year, and it is time to start the negotiations regarding the next contract”.

The expert explained that “88 per cent of teachers are women, most of whom are not paid the minimum wage or included in the social security system”.

Labour Ministry Secretary General Hani Khleifat noted that the meeting “opens the door to social dialogue with all parties involved in the private education sector, in order to formulate a set of recommendations to be submitted to the institutions concerned with the collective labour contract”.

In addition, Khleifat stressed “the importance of achieving gender equality in our legislation in order to increase women's participation in the labour market,” adding that “Jordan has committed itself to achieving the principles of pay equity and the promotion of female economic participation by ratifying the ILO Convention No. 100 on Equal Remuneration, and the Convention No. 111 on Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation”. 

"Tensions between school owners and workers relaxed during the dialogue,” Aslan noted, adding that an agreement was reached to rephrase seven articles on the annual salary raise, bank transfers, the provisions related to the experience of the teachers, their probation period and the minimum time for hiring. 

Earlier this year, over 60 teachers called on the Ministry of Education to take measures against the violations committed by several private schools regarding the salaries of their employees in a meeting organised by the Stand Up with the Teacher campaign. ​

Started in 2015 with the support of NCPE and the ILO, the campaign aims to help female teachers working in private schools ensure that their basic labour rights are respected, according to the campaign organisers.

The campaign’s meeting concluded with Education Minister Omar Razzaz’s announcement of the ministry’s decision requiring all private schools across the Kingdom to transfer the teachers’ salaries to their bank accounts.

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 132th out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, advancing six positions compared to its ranking in 2017.

According to the Reporters Without Borders' website, seen by The Jordan Times on Wednesday, the Kingdom scored 41.71 on a global level in the 2018 ranking, improving from the previous year, when it scored 43.24.

In its report on the country's press environment, the media watchdog noted that Jordan’s media "take care to observe the red lines set by the authorities". 

Journalists are subject to close surveillance by the intelligence services, the report added, and must be affiliated to the state-controlled Jordanian Press Association. 

"The authorities have stepped up control, especially over the Internet, since 2012, when the press and publications law was overhauled. Hundreds of websites have been blocked since 2013, mostly on the grounds that they have no licence," Reporters Without Borders said on their website.

Under the 2015 cyber-crime law, articles published in online newspapers and posts by citizen-journalists on social networks can be punishable by jail sentences and can constitute grounds for pre-trial detention, they added. 

"Security grounds are often used to prosecute and sometimes jail journalists under an extremely vague terrorism law," the index noted. 

The report claimed that gag orders issued by the media commission restrict the public debate and limit journalists’ access to information on sensitive issues.

It also noted that Jordan participated in the Saudi-led "diplomatic offensive" against Qatar in 2017, closing Al Jazeera’s Amman bureau.

AMMAN  — Eager Lion 2018 on Wednesday concluded with a joint naval drill by the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army and the US army, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The drill included the boarding of a ship and its search by the Naval Infantry Brigade 77 and the Anti-Terrorism Battalion.

The exercise aimed at enhancing cooperation in military training between the two armies through various tasks such as encircling the ship by raiding boats, boarding with the use of expedient ladders, and fast-roping.

AMMAN — The Ministry of Education and Manaseer Group on Wednesday launched the first phase of “Noor Space”, a comprehensive e-school management system, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Launched in cooperation with Microsoft and Zain Jordan, “Noor Space” is a unified system for all schools which helps connect and organise work among schools, teachers, students and parents through an electronic portal enabling follow up on students’ evaluation, school announcements and activities in addition to providing educational e-content.

Minister of Education Omar Razzaz said that the system constitutes a paradigm shift, as it promotes the involvement of technology in education, noting that the system can be adapted to meet the needs of any school. The second operational phase, which includes additional services, will be launched by next September, according to the minister. 

AMMAN — The National Campaign for Defending Students’ Rights (Thabahtoona) on Wednesday called for an immediate intervention to address the three-year-long closure of the on-campus health centre at Al Bayt University, according to a Thabahtoona statement.

The campaign called on the Higher Education Council and the Higher Education Accreditation Commission to solve the issue, which they said puts students’ lives at risk, as the nearest medical provider is Mafraq public hospital, which is more than 8 kilometres away from the university.

Al Bayt University’ 15,000 students have expressed several objections to the continued closure of the health centre, the statement said, adding that the university administration has not provided any solutions despite repeated promises over the past three years. The campaign stressed that healthcare provision is a student’s right, not a service offered by universities.

AMMAN — Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, HRH Prince Hassan on Wednesday inaugurated the first international Jordan agricultural forum, which is organised by the Agriculture Ministry with the participation of delegations representing 60 countries and organisations.

During a speech at the two-day conference, Prince Hassan called for identifying priorities, utilising human resources in the Arab world and activating good governance to achieve human security in all its aspects without discrimination, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He stressed that development policies have to consider enhancing the relation between food security and social protection to guarantee equal distribution of food. Agriculture Minister Khaled Hneifat said that Jordanian agricultural produce is of "high quality", due to the Kingdom's climate, especially in the Jordan Valley area.