Azraq parents lament sorry state of local school

AMMAN — Poor infrastructure at an Azraq school is impeding students’ learning and their rights to education, complain parents.

The conditions at South Azraq High School are “atrocious”, as students are exposed to bad air quality from kerosene heaters and lessons take place in a metal trailer, which is not designed to deal with severe weather, a mother of a fifth grader told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

“This is a call for action to better the school’s situation in providing a suitable environment for our kids, thereby facilitating creative thinking and optimising their potential,” she added.

Financial resources are needed to maintain the school building, especially since new students are coming from other schools, leading to over-crowded classrooms with over 25 students packed into a small space, a school staff member who preferred to remain anonymous told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

“Usually in low socioeconomic areas, funding is not allocated to the infrastructure of school buildings, so we are calling upon the Ministry of Education to give greater focus to the needs of schools,” the staff member added.

There are 11 classrooms serving grades one to 12 in the current building, but due to the large numbers of students, computer laboratories have been turned into regular classrooms.

“Four hundred students are enrolled in our school, as well as 300 schoolchildren for the night shift,” according to the staff member.

Sami Azzam Huwaytat, a parent of a student at the school, said that the school “lacks the necessary infrastructure”, affecting children’s and teachers’ productivity and most importantly, their health.

“This problem did not start a few months ago, but has been going on for more than four years now, so we ask our government to help our children claim their essential right to education,” Huwaytat told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Despite several attempts to contact the Ministry of Education concerning this issue, The Jordan Times received no response.