A computer for every student

Al Ghad’s Fahed Khitan said that school students will spend the remaining of their school hours doing distance learning.

Opinion polls have showed variation in expectations about this unprecedented experience for two million Jordanian students. However, adaptation with distance education is not easy for students and teachers alike, who need training and empowerment. Generally speaking, it seems that distance learning can be a reliable main source for education during “force majeure” events, like the one that we are experiencing.

Highlighting that the hard experience could be repeated in the future, be it a new coronavirus wave in winter, or any other similar circumstances that impose on the students to stay at their homes, the writer urged the related bodies to develop the current distance learning system.

In comparison with other countries, the Kingdom’s students were amongst the luckiest, as a UNESCO study revealed that more than 700 million students worldwide do not have internet access, accordingly they missed their right to education.

In Jordan, more than 85 per cent of students have internet access, while the practical experience revealed various problems with distance learning, including internet coverage gap, poor internet connectivity and insufficient computers, especially when there is more than one student in the same family.

He said, in terms of accessibility and coverage, the problem can be solved by asking telecom companies to develop their services, while to overcome the availability problem, Khitan called for launching an initiative to offer every public-school student a computer, emphasising that education is a constitutional right.