Jiza education director injured in assault by unidentified individuals

AMMAN — Salem Sharaideh, the Jiza District education director, was attacked on Monday by unidentified assailants as he was leaving the Manja Secondary School for Boys, according to a Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) member.

Abdul Rahman Zaben, the JTA member in the district, told The Jordan Times the incident was the third case of violence against teachers in Jiza, some 30km south of Amman, in two months.

Three men in a black Jeep with no licence plate threw bricks at Sharaideh’s car, shattering the windshield and injuring the education director and the head of the supervision department accompanying him.

Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat called Sharaideh later in the day and checked on his condition, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The ministry, he said, is following the situation closely with security bodies and will coordinate with concerned parties to take the necessary measures against the assailants, according to Petra.

Zaben attributed assaults against teachers in Jiza to “the lack of strict security measures against perpetrators”.

Furthermore, he noted that area residents disapprove of the ministry’s recent regulations that ban General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) students from sitting for exams if they exceed the allowed absences as well as its measures to prevent cheating during Tawjihi.

Students in the district, Zaben said, used to pass Tawjihi by cheating via mobile phones.

“The new regulations explain why the passing rate of the Tawjihi winter session this year was close to zero,” he added, calling for drafting a law that prevents assaults on teachers, as incidents of physical violence and phone threats prevent them from performing their job properly.

Some 14,300 students study at the district’s 102 schools, according to Zaben.