CULF 3331: "Middle Eastern Revolutions"

Higher education, either a two-year intermediate level course offered by community colleges or four years of university level courses, either in public or private institutions. The student's achievement on the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination is the sole criterion for admission into higher education institutes.

Under this system, students in grades 4 through 10 may repeat a grade twice. After that they are automatically promoted. In the preparatory stage, grade repetition is allowed only once. At the secondary level, students are allowed to repeat once in a government school provided they are younger than 17; otherwise they must transfer to a private school.

Community colleges and universities vary in required attendance from two years in community colleges to six or more in universities based on the type of institution and specialization

he majority of students are enrolled in schools directly controlled by the MOE. Some schools fall under the jurisdiction of the cultural bureau of the Ministry of Defense. The Ministry of Health oversees students studying for medical careers; it established the first nursing school in 1953-54.

Instruction is in Arabic, but English is introduced in public schools in the fifth grade and is widely used. A new policy was recently approved to start teaching English in the first grade beginning in the academic year 2001-02

The school year runs for 210 days from September to June.

All public schools and most private ones use the same textbooks. Under Law 16 of 1964, the School Curricula and Textbooks Division of the MOE is responsible for producing and printing the textbooks. They are distributed free of charge during the compulsory stage, but there is a nominal fee at the secondary stage.

Jordanian public schools are single sex schools.

In 1997, however, only 16 percent of students were attending two shift schools and 11 percent went to rented buildings.

As a whole, education in Jordan is considered an investment in the future. Skilled citizens are necessary. Before the Gulf War, most graduates could find good jobs in the oil-rich countries, and the money they sent home helped the Jordanian economy to grow. It is not uncommon for a family living at subsistence level to be able to send a child to a university (Abu-Zeinh).

n Jordan, there is an excessive use of lecturing and memorisation, with little emphasis on analysis of what is being memorised. It is well known that students in public schools are required to memorise endless facts and formulas from a dreary academic curriculum.

hile all new theories of language acquisition are based on meaningful communication through which students can acquire English as a second language without translation or focusing on grammatical principles and rules, “grammar translation method” is still the only popular method used in public schools and even at universities in Jordan.

Over the years, there has been much talk about reforming the education system in Jordan, but less action. Reform i

We need an education through which students are able to connect the facts they learn about to the real world, which helps them innovate, understand social responsibilities, ethics and values.