More than 130,000 students transfer from private to public schools — Education minister

AMMAN — Minister of Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research Mohammad Abu Qudais recently said that more than 130,000 students were transferred from private to public schools during the last academic year.

The mass shift of student to public schools has put great pressure on the infrastructure of public schools, and posed a big challenge for the ministry.

Abu Qudais added that a new challenge will arise if students do not return to in-class education in the following academic year, stressing that the ministry has put several scenarios in preparation for the return of in-class education. 

He also mentioned that the ministry will announce the scenarios later.

Implementing COVID protocol in 4,000 schools under the umbrella of the ministry will create a lot of pressure on the classrooms to guarantee the application of physical distancing between the students, the minister said. 

Since only half of the students will be present in each classroom, this is a lot different from what classrooms looked like pre-pandemic.  While this will put a lot of pressure on both the students and the teachers, Abu Qudais noted that the ministry might need to recruit new teachers to fill these gaps.

He continued that the ministry might resort to applying the “shift system” in which some students might receive online education using the new platform that the ministry will launch by the beginning of the next academic year, stressing that this will apply to private schools as well.

A ninth-grader, who preferred to remain anonymous, and was transferred from a private to a public school last year due to the pandemic said that the main reason behind moving was financial burden.

“A full year of online classes in a private school was not worth the huge amount of tuition fees we pay,” he told The Jordan Times.

 He expressed his dissatisfaction with the learning process since “the teachers did not follow up with him during his online education and assigned a lot of homework without direct communication between the teacher and the student”.

One of the main differences between private and public schools for the student personally was that all classes are previously recorded in public schools rather than virtual meetings like the ones held in private schools. 

“This made it hard for me to ask questions instantly so the idea behind each lesson was not always delivered,” he added.

 In an interview with The Jordan Times, a primary public school teacher, who also preferred to remain anonymous, said that using electronic devices was a challenge since they were not available. 

“Some students were out of reach since they did not have full access to the Internet,” she said. 

 Not all parents were capable of assisting their children with accessing the platform, which was another challenge, the teacher noted. 

Another ninth grader, who preferred anonymity, said that she found some difficulty in understanding her classes on the platform and sought to family members for help. 

“We have groups to communicate with teachers for each subject but we barely use them,” she told The Jordan Times.