AMMAN — The director of Maan Education Directorate, Mohammad Qeesho, was assaulted on Thursday by angry Tawjihi students who were demonstrating outside the directorate, according to an Education Ministry official.
General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) students were protesting against Education Ministry measures to introduce stricter regulations to the exams, Education Ministry Spokesperson Walid Jallad said.
Around 50 students from Maan city, some 220km south of Amman, participated in the protest outside the directorate, Public Security Department (PSD) Spokesperson Major Amer Sartawi noted.
Sartawi said Qeesho is in fair condition.
He is currently receiving medical treatment at Maan Public Hospital, according to Jallad.
“Students were angry because the ministry is taking strict measures to regulate the exams. For example, they asked that the ministry re-include objective questions in the exams,” he told The Jordan Times over the phone.
The Tawjihi winter session results are not ready yet, Jallad stressed, adding that the ministry is still verifying the marks.
“We call on students not to believe what some websites are writing about the results being ready and that they will publish them online,” he said.
“The ministry is the only authorised party to announce the results,” he added, noting that no specific date has been set to release the results.
Meanwhile, around 30 students gathered outside the main traffic light in Salt city in the Kingdom’s northern region, some 35km northwest of Amman, also in protest against the ministry’s procedures, according to the PSD.
Around 170,969 students registered for the winter session, including 89,286 males and 81,683 females, of whom 106,684 are regular students, according to the Education Ministry.
In previous remarks, Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat said around 24,000 registered students did not sit for the winter session exam, during which some 6,000 violations were recorded.
In order to avoid a repeat of the “flagrant” violations witnessed in previous sessions, the ministry took strict measures this year, such as appointing 24,000 monitors and installing special devices to jam mobile reception, thus foiling attempts to cheat through cellular phones.
These procedures cost the government around JD26 million.
Students’ Tawjihi grades decide their future in higher education. It is the main criterion to determine which specialty in which they can major, at which public university they can enrol and whether they are qualified to go to university.
