Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0204/02047.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 16KB | 267 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02047}
$Pretitle{234}
$Title{Jordan
Chapter 2E.   Education and Health}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Irving Kaplan}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{schools
students
education
number
percent
secondary
medical
health
jordan
vocational}
$Date{1979}
$Log{Operations in Progress*0204702.scf
}
Country:     Jordan
Book:        Jordan, A Country Study
Author:      Irving Kaplan
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1979

Chapter 2E.   Education and Health

     The turbulent events of the 1960s and 1970s sorely taxed the government's
ability to improve educational and health services. Governmental good
intentions in these areas contended with an inherently poor natural
endowment; straitened financial circumstances; physical devastation; the loss
of a significant portion of productive industrial, agricultural, and other
facilities to the Israelis; and another influx of generally destitute
Palestinians. In addition, significant price inflation eroded the position
of many citizens.

     Nevertheless significant progress has been made in a number of areas.
Progress is especially evident in education, which has been a stated priority
of the government for a number of years. Education had become widely
available, although some observers have questioned both the quality of the
instruction and the appropriateness of the curriculum to the economy's
requirements. Recognizing the need to supply training more suited to realistic
employment prospects and to improve the level of teacher training, the
government continues to strengthen vocational and technical education and to
provide in-service training for its teachers.

     The forces affecting the standard of living and the effects of those
forces on the average citizen were more difficult to assess in late 1979.
Information was scarce and its reliability open to question. It appeared safe
to generalize only that living conditions varied considerably according to
region, kind of settlement, social position, and fortune of war. At the high
end of the spectrum, well-to-do city dwellers appeared to enjoy comforts of
modern life. In cities, however, basic public services, such as water, sewage,
and electricity, were insufficient to meet the needs of most residents. Poor
rural people generally lived in primitive circumstances. At the bottom were
the poorest of the refugees, many living as dependents of international relief
services.

     Diet was generally reported to be adequate to support life and activity,
if not good health. No reports of starvation were found, but nutritional
deficiencies of various kinds were reportedly not uncommon. The diet reflected
the agricultural limitations of the country and therefore was inadequate in a
number of nutrients, especially high-quality protein and certain vitamins.
Although epidemic diseases appeared to be under a degree of control, neither
the state of health of the average citizen nor the availability of medical
facilities was satisfactory.

Education

     In 1921 when the Amirate of Transjordan was created, educational
facilities consisted of twenty-five religious schools that provided a narrow,
tradition-oriented education. By 1977 there were more than 2,400 schools
having about 21,500 teachers and an enrollment of nearly 619,000; nearly
one-third of the population was involved in education as a teacher or a
student at home or abroad.

     In 1979 nearly 95 percent of the nation's six-to-twelve-year-olds were in
the primary cycle, nearly 75 percent of the twelve-to-fifteen-year-olds were
in the preparatory cycle, and 35 to 40 percent of the
fifteen-to-eighteen-year-olds were in the secondary cycle. Progress in
literacy had been and continued to be impressive. By 1979 perhaps as many as
90 percent of the ten-to-fifteen-year-olds were literate, and an estimate of
literacy in excess of 60 percent for the adult population seemed reasonable.

     The educational ladder consists of four parts: primary (grades one
through six); preparatory (grades seven through nine); secondary (grades ten
through twelve); and postsecondary (all higher education). Promotion from the
compulsory cycle to the more specialized secondary schools was controlled by a
standardized written examination, as was passage from secondary to the
postsecondary programs. The Ministry of Education, which controls almost every
aspect of education, administered the examinations. For grades one through
twelve over 70 percent of the students attended the free government schools in
the late 1970s, about 22 percent attended the UNRWA schools, also free, and
about 8 percent attended private schools. In 1977 the Department of Statistics
reported that there were 193 UNRWA schools and 289 private schools

     The primary curriculum stresses basic literacy skills. Subjects taught
include reading and writing in Arabic; religion (Islam for Muslims and the
appropriate religion for non-Muslims); arithmetic; civics and history, with
emphasis on the history of the Arabs and the concept of the Arab nation;
geography, with emphasis on the Arab countries; science; music; physical
education; and drawing for male students and embroidery for females. In the
fifth grade English is added to the official curriculum, although many private
schools teach it earlier, and some offer French. Within the primary cycle,
promotion from grade to grade is required by law to be essentially automatic.
Children may be held back only twice in six years, after which they proceed to
higher grades regardless of the quality of their work.

     In the preparatory cycle work on academic subjects continues, both to
improve the skills of terminal students and to prepare those going on to
secondary studies. In addition vocational education begins on a limited basis.
Each school is required to provide at least one course in a vocational subject
for each grade. Boys' schools may offer agricultural, industrial, or
commercial studies, and girls' schools offer home economics. In general each
school offers only one of the vocational options, and all students must take
that subject for three periods a week for three years. To the academic courses
offered in the primary grades, the preparatory curriculum adds geometry,
algebra, and social studies.

     On completion of the ninth grade, students may sit for the public
preparatory examination for promotion to the secondary level. Secondary
education is somewhat selective in enrollment and quite specialized in
purpose. Both academic (general) and vocational careers of study exist; the
former is designed to prepare students for university-level studies and the
latter to train middle-level technical personnel for the work force. Within
the academic curriculum, students further specialize in scientific or literary
studies. Because of the specialized nature and relatively limited number of
secondary facilities, students are not necessarily segregated by sex into
separate schools.

     The number of qualified applicants to secondary vocational institutions
routinely exceeds the number of available places, and selection to one of
these schools is considered desirable because it virtually guarantees
reasonably well-paid employment on graduation. In addition to agricultural
schools and to commercial schools offering secretarial, accounting, and
bookkeeping courses, the system includes industrial schools offering programs
in metalwork, auto mechanics, plumbing and air conditioning, electrical work,
and building trades such as carpentry. The program includes both theoretical
training and practical experience in a given trade, and teachers are
themselves vocational school graduates, many of whom have had additional
training or experience abroad.

     The secondary program culminates in the public secondary education
examination, which qualifies students for postsecondary study. A variety of
institutions of higher learning exist, including universities; nonuniversity
institutes of vocational and technical training, such as teachers' coll