Parents in Jordan up in arms as learning goes online

AMMAN - An unprecedented number of 51,000 students transferred from private to public schools this year, according to the Education Ministry’s Spokesperson Abul Ghafoor Alquran.

In remarks to Al Mamlaka TV, the spokesperson said the cause behind the transfers lies in families’ difficult financial conditions due to the coronavirus crisis, noting that acceptance of transfer applications will end on September 17 with no extension on the date.

“There will barely be students left in private schools because of their greed, they always want more,” Heba Okdeh commented on Facebook.

Rasha Khaled wrote: “People are misjudging private schools, teachers do their best with students, even online, recording videos, following up on homework and doing as much interaction with students as possible.”

For his part, Anwar Aj commented: “These transfers will cause school principals to deduct from teachers’ salaries now.”

Abeer Nasser wrote: “We need to transfer them all out of private schools, the minister insisted our children go to school when cases hiked, and did not postpone the start of the semester, and now he caused us to lose the money we paid with false reassurance.”

As the decision to have students attend school online for 14 days as of Thursday, many commented that they either do not have laptops or have devices, but not enough internet bundles to cover their children’s needs. They also voiced disbelief in the government’s intent to distribute laptops to families in need.

“When a student wears a mask and learns how to use handsanitiser, they should not attend school from home, just disinfect classes and schools,” Reem Nabulsi wrote.

“We need to adapt to living with the virus; otherwise our children will be lost, it is not like we are doing an amazing job with remote education, it is just not working out,” user Thawra Adee commented.

The ministry announced that 300,000 laptops will be given to students, whose families benefit from the National Aid Fund.

On this, Abu Ahed Darwish wrote: “There are daily wage workers and many others who barely find money for food but are not benefitting from the National Aid Fun, what about them?”

Many others commented that they cannot afford to buy laptops, noting that remote education is exhausting for both families and schools.