Ministry to discuss new Tawjihi with stakeholders

08 December 2009

AMMAN - Some 200 educational experts, journalists, educators, parents and students from across the Kingdom will convene on December 26 to decide on proposed drastic changes to the Tawjihi system, a top official said.

Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Walid Maani said the national conference will gather all concerned parties to study a plan proposed by the ministry to hold the Tawjihi (General Secondary School Certificate Examination) over four semesters in two years rather than in two semesters.

In an interview with The Jordan Times this week, Maani explained that under the proposed plan, the Tawjihi will be used as an admission test for universities.

"The Tawjihi should not be really used for employment, it should be used for purposes of acceptance in universities... It should not be used as an indicator of finishing high school, because there is a certificate issued by the ministry that indicates finishing high school... so it is just an acceptance test," he said.

According to Maani, the Tawjihi will be carried out through two sets of subjects: the national bundle and the university bundle.

The first bundle, whose subjects have yet to be decided, will be obligatory for all students, while the second bundle will include specific tests that will be required for students wishing to study certain subjects at college.

"The medical and biological bundle for example, contains subjects that are required for anybody who wants to study medicine or biology. The engineering and computing bundle contains subjects for anybody who wants to study engineering, IT or MIS," Maani explained, adding that students will choose which subjects to study at the end of the 10th grade.

He added that a student will have two years (four semesters) to sit for the exams, with three subjects in each semester for a total of 12 subjects, but this number may change.

According to Maani, studying only three subjects each semester will give students more time to study each subject thoroughly, as well as to participate in extracurricular activities.

During the conference, the minister will present the proposed plan for recommendations from the participants, while comments submitted by the public on the proposal's website, www.newtawjihi.jo, will be presented as well.

"After finishing the conference, the recommendations will be referred to the Education Council to ratify them, and implementation will start in June 2012," Maani noted.

The minister stressed, however, that some issues related to the plan must still be resolved, including the question of what to do with students who choose a certain course of study but whose grades do not qualify them for university-level work in their chosen field, but expressed confidence that such issues will be resolved during the conference.

Reforming the Tawjihi system, he explained, will require overhauling other components of the education system, including changes to the curriculum to match the new system, teacher training and improving the environment in schools.

"If you do not have the right teachers to teach the right curriculum, then the outcome will be hopeless," the minister stated.

Maani also revealed that the ministry is currently in the process of creating an educational training center to coordinate and unify its ongoing training projects and said the ministry is also planning to look into the issue of teachers' salaries.

"After the training, one has to look into their [teachers'] situation, whether they are happy or not... of course they are not happy because the payment is little and the morale is low... we have to work on this," he said.

The minister also stressed that improving the education environment is not only a matter of upgrading facilities, but also involves improving the relationship between students and teachers, citing recent incidents of school violence as a reason to make this issue a priority.

"We want to reform the school so that students wake up in the morning and want to go to school because it is an enjoyable environment, not only because it looks good, it must feel good," he said.