Prince Hassan highlights need for fair, comprehensive and quality education

AMMAN — While technological revolutions, particularly in  social media , have facilitated instant access to information, they have also raised questions about the accuracy and quality of the information available, HRH Prince Hassan said at a ceremony honouring the winners of the El Hassan Bin Talal Award for Scientific Excellence on Thursday.

In his opening address, he highlighted the need for all stakeholders to further collaborate in order to offer fair, comprehensive and quality education to children, while support life-long learning for all, which are both components of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

The prince, who is the chairman of the Higher Council for Science and Technology (HCST), said that advanced technology is no longer used solely to improve work patterns, but have also expanded to function as a catalyst to creativity, innovation and problem solving.

Meanwhile, he said hosting tens of thousands of refugee children in Jordan has put pressure on the educational system in light of the Kingdom's limited resources, combined with insufficient international support. He commended the Education Ministry's efforts to provide education for all.

This year's awards were given to institutions of general education, excluding vocational education.

The first award, worth JD7,000, was shared between Mutah Secondary Comprehensive School for Girls in  Karak for its “Recycling” project, and Al Dur Al Manthur School in Amman for its project titled “Implement teaching using STEM strategies”.

The second JD5,000 award was shared between Amman's Baccalaureate School for its project “Amman Model United Nations (AMMUN)”, and Karak's Noor Al Hussein Secondary School for Girls for its project “Producers on the roofs”.

The third award, worth JD3,000, was shared between King Abdullah School for Excellence in Tafileh for its “Surface cultivation” project, and Al Ashrafieh Comprehensive Secondary School for Boys in Irbid for its project “Employing education drama in eliminating and reducing the phenomenon of depriving females of culture”.

The ceremony, held at the Royal Cultural Centre, was also attended by HRH Princess Sarvath.

Khalid Shraideh, the secretary general of the HCST, said Jordan's educational system, which was well-recognised in the region during the 1980s, has been in decline over the past years.

He attributed this drop in performance to the country's growing number of students, combined with limited financial resources, which have hindered the ability to attract professionals to the education sector, in addition to a lack of regular reviews of school curricula.

 The award has greatly benefited recipients over the past 10 years, Shraideh added, providing them with psychological and financial support. 

Since the establishment of the award, there have been 16 first place winners, with 14 of the projects still operating today.

Regarding this year's award, the secretary general said they received 28 applications from private and public schools competing on the basis of excellence, community service, cooperation, project content and the percentage of work achieved.