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Building a Resilient and Responsive Education System in Jordan: Strengthening Evidence-Based Crisis-Sensitive Planning and Governance

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Evidence and Learnings from Jordan on Building Resilient Governance and Monitoring Systems for Effective Crisis Response and Evidence-Based Planning in the Education Sector

PRACTICE PROFILE

Access to quality education for all in Jordan has been impacted by several crises in recent years, including the Syrian refugee crisis, global economic instability, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2019, UNESCO is supporting the efforts of the Ministry of Education (MoE) and national institutions to improve the responsiveness and resilience of the education system to crises through strong governance and information management systems, by strengthening evidence-based planning, monitoring, and decisionmaking. This case study provides valuable evidence and learnings from the process of building a strong enabling institutional environment necessary to strengthen evidence-based crisis and risk-sensitive planning and monitoring.

Contexts and needs: Impact on Jordan's education system

The Ministry of Education has embarked on the implementation of an ambitious reform agenda, with improvements in access across the education system. Long term national priorities and developmental goals are articulated in the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2018-2025, derived from the National Strategy for Human Resources Development (HRD) 2016-2025, and grounded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular SDG4. They are also articulated in the newly launched Economic Modernization Vision (EMV) 2023-2033, under the auspice of His Majesty King Abdullah II, in which education, from early childhood to higher education, is a key pillar. The transformative Vision recognizes education as a key driver to ensuring economic growth, and important socio-development milestones in the Kingdom.

Despite the very clear commitments Jordan made to prioritize education, the Kingdom is still facing major challenges to accommodate current education priorities and needs to deliver quality education for all.

Jordan has been one of the countries most affected by the Syria crisis, hosting the second-highest share of refugees per capita in the world. More than 760,000 refugees are registered with UNHCR, predominantly from Syria, with large groups from Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia. This is in addition to the 2.2 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA in Jordan.

The Syria crisis has placed significant strain on the public education sector. Yet, despite limited resources, Jordan has welcomed Syrian refugees in its public schools since the start of the crisis. To address the increasing demand for education and prevent any child from being left behind, a double-shift system and remedial education programmes were implemented to absorb refugees and mitigate the issue of overcrowded classrooms in the education sector.

Vulnerabilities across the country further increased due to COVID-19, impacting the education sector and hindering achievements, progress and reforms initiated over the past years. Schools in Jordan fully or partially closed in March 2020 and reopened in September 2021, with one of the longest school closures globally, at 323 days, impacting 2.37 million learners from pre-primary to tertiary.

The Government of Jordan responded quickly to the pandemic to ensure continuity of learning, rapidly putting in place an online learning platform. Jordan was also a regional leader in effectively preparing schools for reopening, with guidance and training for teachers; hygiene and sanitation materials; and physical distancing and rotation. However, the educational development and psychological well-being of millions of children have been impacted by the pandemic, with vulnerable children such as refugee children or children with disabilities being among the most affected, and e-learning loss observed nationally through a National Diagnosis Assessment.

Following the Covid-19 crisis, more than 200, 000 students have transferred from private to public schools putting an additional pressure on an already strained system, resulting in more overcrowding of schools, and an increased number of double-shift classes.

Jordan has renewed its commitment to the right to education through the Jordan Declaration on Inclusion and Diversity in Education, as well as through the National Statement of Commitment shared at the UN Transforming Education Summit in September 2022. It was an opportunity for Jordan to highlight key priorities such as addressing the learning crisis, focusing on foundational learning, and on crisis sensitive planning to support a resilient and evidence-based education system, flexible to transform and adapt to national and local challenges.