AMMAN -- Khuleif Ifuseena is the first teacher at the Princess Aisha Bint Al Hussein Comprehensive Secondary School to complete information and communications training (ICT) under the Jordan Education Initiative (JEI).
E-learning strategies, similar to those introduced by Ifuseena in her classroom, were the subject of a two-day 6th JEI update meeting earlier this month. The 150 participants represented policy makers, ICT specialists and businesses from the US, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. Also in attendance was Saudi Minister of Education Abdullah Ben Saleh Al Obeid.
JEI-type initiatives are under way in Palestine, Egypt and Rajasthan, India.
The JEI resulted from a proposal at the 2003 World Economic Forum annual meeting for a public-private partnership model that improves education in a developing country through innovation, e-learning, capacity building and accelerated reform. Jordan was selected as the pilot country. It is the first private-public partnership of its kind in the world. Over 17 global corporations, 17 local companies and 11 governmental and nongovernmental organisations are project stakeholders.
The Discovery Schools (DS) initiative, involving 105 schools, 50,000 students and 2,300 teachers, started in 2003 and e-curricula implementation began in 2004.
In addition to DS, the JEI also involves ICT industry development. The pilot project is expected to expand throughout the Kingdom in the near future. There are already Discovery Schools in Madaba, Salt, Tafileh and Aqaba.
New partners are also on-board including Fastlink, Microsoft and USAID, according to Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suhair Al-Ali. Funding from USAID will staff the Project Management Office Discovery Schools Track until September 2007.
In addition to science, ICT, English as a foreign language and maths, there are also new e-courses in civics and geography.
With several JEI projects under way, the focus now is on further implementation to reach students, parents and the broader community, then-Minister of Education Khalid Touqan told conference participants.
To date, there has been no formal evaluation of JEI's impact on students. The British Council and Keele University are currently preparing evaluation material. Outgoing JEI programme director, Majied Qasem, told The Jordan Times that data is already being informally collected, but said it is too early for an assessment of student performance because the new e-curricula only started to be disseminated at a limited scale last year.
"In education, it takes time to see the results," he said.
Touqan said that initial studies also show "a slight improvement in students' performance and an increased effort to learn maths and science." Next year, DS students will also enter the International Pisa competition, a competitive exam for students in OECD countries, he added. They will be used as a control sample to measure their international competitiveness. In 2007, the performance of DS students in maths and science will be compared with others schools, Touqan said.
During the conference, participants brainstormed about the JEI's next steps and challenges. According to one participant, while some teachers had ICT training, they experienced problems accessing computers. Another participant raised the issue of why there were only 100 schools in the third year of the JEI project. But Qasem said that the100 schools provide a representative sample. There are also issues of manageability of the pilot schools, he added.
Rana Madani, JEI's e-curricula track manager who is a former teacher, said that the technology would benefit students, especially "if it is a dry concept such as biology or chemistry."
However, Madani said clear strategies needed to be developed for content developers in order that the curricula can be implemented faster in the schools.
The JEI has spawned the World Economic Forum's Global Education Initiative, which is the umbrella organisation for the JEI and similar projects.
Andreas Cox, senior programme manager of the Global Economic Initiative, and former head of JEI said that the JEI is an example of innovation that has resulted from Jordan opening up its schools and laws, and developing a new model.
"It is intended to be a model not only for Jordan but also for other developing countries," said Cox.
By Sheila M. Dabu
© Jordan Times 2005
