Tawjihi summer session schedule approved

AMMAN — The Education Ministry’s general examination committee on Thursday approved the final version of the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination’s (Tawjihi) summer session schedule. 

Education Ministry Spokesperson Walid Jallad said that according to the new schedule, exams will start on June 13 and end on June 26, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The schedule is available on www.moe.gov.jo.

As of the next academic year, students who sit for secondary school exams outside Jordan will have to undertake a proficiency test, according to Higher Education Ministry Secretary General Hani Dmour. 

The decision, taken recently by the Higher Education Council (HEC), applies to countries that do not have a unified national secondary exam similar to Tawjihi.

“The decision includes students who obtain their secondary school degree from Arab schools located in foreign countries, such as the Libyan school in Ukraine,” Dmour told The Jordan Times in a phone interview.

He noted that hundreds of Jordanian students have travelled to earn their secondary school degree from abroad to come back with certificates that allow them to enrol in specific university majors.

“We want to streamline the process. The proficiency exam will be prepared by the Education Ministry under the supervision of the Higher Education Accreditation Commission,” said the official, adding that the decision excludes those who were enrolled under international exam systems like the IGCSE or IB.

“The new measure also excludes students who earned their secondary school degree from countries that conduct a unified national exam for graduates after finishing school,” he highlighted, citing countries like Saudi Arabia.

Although the decision to hold a proficiency exam came a few weeks after a secondary exam paper leak took place in Sudan and involved Jordanian students, Dmour underlined that the ministry has been “studying the issue for a while”.

In March, Sudanese authorities detained a number of Jordanian students over claims that the national exam test papers were leaked and obtained by some of them.

In response to the HEC decision, some people took to social media to complain over the “confusion” in authorities’ ways to address the issue.

“The Education Ministry did not get into details on what students will be tested for in the proficiency exam and how it will assess their abilities. All they know is how to make parents and students panic,” Asma Awadat wrote on Facebook.

Othman Ghosoun, a student in the UAE, said the decision would “cause injustices to many Jordanian students abroad”.

“The Education Ministry makes it seem like the Jordanian Tawjihi is the most credible... exam there is in the entire universe,” he wrote on Facebook.

However, Sarah Jawdat believes that the decision is fair, especially for students who sit for Tawjihi in Jordan.

“It is totally unfair that some students get exaggerated degrees when they apply for Tawjihi abroad and come to compete with in universities. I think the proficiency exam is a great idea,” she told The Jordan Times.