‘English teachers to take test amid debates over staff assessments’

AMMAN — English language teachers in schools affiliated with selected education departments will sit for an elective assessment exam on Sunday, according to an informed source. 

The test comes after heated debates between the Education Ministry and the Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) on the legitimacy of the exam, which is part of a series of assessment tests intended to gauge the abilities of educators in different subjects. 

“At first we were against the idea of testing teachers who had already been appointed by the ministry and have been serving for years, but after the ministry assured us that it will be voluntary and only in selected education directorates, we supported the decision,” JTA Spokesperson Ahmad Hajaya told The Jordan Times on Saturday. 

“As much as we trust the abilities of our cadres, who are a model in Arab and African countries, we were against the idea of the exam as being mandatory for all teachers,” he said, noting that this would have subjected educators to “ridicule and put their reputation at risk”.

While stressing the JTA’s support for efforts to rehabilitate and develop the abilities of educators, Hajaya said that assessing the abilities of teachers based on a national unified exam and then disseminating the results would “harm the course of the education process and cause more damage than good, for it affects the morale and performance of teachers”.

“We agreed with the ministry on the need to hold such an exam for new teachers, especially in basic subjects such as Arabic,” he added.

Sunday’s exam is organised in cooperation with the British Council.  

Officials at the Education Ministry were not available for comment.