Cabinet approves reforms to enhance education, infrastructure, public services

AMMAN — The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a set of reforms aimed at transforming education, improving infrastructure, and enhancing public services.

During a Cabinet session, Prime Minister Jafar Hassan outlined steps to modernise the education system in alignment with the Public Sector Modernisation Roadmap, paving the way for necessary legal and legislative actions to implement these changes.

A major reform includes the merger of the ministries of education and higher education and scientific research into a unified ministry that will also oversee human resource development, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.  

To guide national education policy, a new Council for Education and Human Resource Development will be established, supported by specialised committees focused on general education, higher education, inclusive education, and early childhood education.

Administrative restructuring would also see the reduction of education directorates to 16, based on geographical and population factors. 

Jordan aims to improve its position in the Global Knowledge Index, with the Cabinet approving a national plan led by the Ministry of Education to place the Kingdom in the top 50 per cent of participating countries, according to Petra. 

In response to overcrowding and to enhance learning environments, the Cabinet greenlighted the construction of two new schools in Irbid and Zarqa, funded by the Saudi Development Fund at a cost of JD1.6 million each, prioritising local labour.

Two German-funded initiatives were also approved to digitise education and training, modernise vocational training, digitise school curricula, and increase the use of technology in classrooms to better align educational outcomes with labour market needs.

The Cabinet also provided relief to scholarship students and their guarantors by waiving penalties for failing to apply for public sector jobs through the Civil Service Bureau.

The Cabinet also approved a German-funded wastewater management project aimed at improving sanitation, reducing environmental impact, and expanding the use of treated wastewater for irrigation. 

The Council of Ministers also approved a project funded by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to rehabilitate critical roads and bridges linking Amman with other cities, with an emphasis on improving safety and repairing weather-damaged infrastructure.

New regulations were also passed for companies supplying Jordanian workers, ensuring compliance with labour laws and requiring quotas for workers with disabilities.

The Council of Ministers also approved a Memorandum of Understanding with GAVI to boost Jordan's immunisation programme and introduce new vaccines, such as the pneumococcal vaccine, as part of the country's ongoing public health efforts.