During a workshop held under the patronage of HE Minister of Education Dr. Mohammad Al Thneibat

AMMAN - November18, 2015 - The Arab Organization for Quality Assurance in Education (AROQA) held a workshop at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum under the patronage of HE Minister of Education Dr. Mohammad Al Thneibat on improving the quality of education and accreditation in schools with the presence of education directors in governorates and provinces, school headmasters, and representatives of international organizations.

Chairman of AROQA HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh stressed that this meeting is just as important as any political meeting since education is the basis for success. He added that one of this year’s Arab Summit resolutions was to consider 2015-2024 the Arab Literacy Decade and it commissioned the League of Arab States through AROQA to make this true. Thus, we finalized a draft unified book to teach Arabic in all Arab countries.

Furthermore, he added that: "AROQA works on developing a program to teach IT for all primary grades to make it a learning tool for students at all levels of education." Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh pointed that AROQA put all its service at the disposal of the Ministry of Education to introduce IT in the primary grades and quality in education in accordance with the Royal directives on the transition to knowledge-based societies and in response to the call of His Majesty King Abdullah II for private-public sectors partnership.

He also indicated that this workshop defines the practical steps necessary for the establishment of quality assurance units in schools, activate their role, coordinate with concerned authorities, and prepare the procedures necessary for applying the quality system in all schools across the Kingdom.

Representative of the Minister of Education Dr. Mohammad Al Thneibat, Secretary-General Mohammad Al Akur stressed that the Ministry of Education has started to develop education policies since 2000 to establish a high-quality educational system. It also worked on promoting professionalism in quality sciences and its application on the ground.

He added: "The development of education and its quality is of the priorities of our wise Hashemite leadership. The government in turn translated these priorities into programs and development projects through networking with concerned institutions", pointing out that the Ministry sought to establish effective partnerships with private firms to integrate them in the educational process. This workshop is a true translation of the Ministry’s desire to establish a true partnership with AROQA as it is a specialized organization in the field of education and quality.

He expressed the readiness of the Ministry to sign an agreement with AROQA that, along with the Ministry's efforts, contributes in enhancing and developing the education quality in Jordan; pointing out that the Ministry will review the educational process and academic programs at all levels in schools to achieve the best accreditation standards and reach the advanced specifications of the quality standards of education.

During the workshop, quality and accreditation standards and indicators were presented by AROQA through which schools are being evaluated by a specialized team which pays field visits; reviews submitted self-reports and then recommends the school accreditation result according to the scientific measurement of compliance with the standards and indicators. This measures all educational and administrative aspects, infrastructure as well as the outputs of classroom, activities, creative skills, teaching methods and their effectiveness. The accreditation period granted by the AROQA is five years through which periodical reviews and follow ups are carried to view continuous enhancement and methods of quality assurance in conformity with more than 130 scientific indicators.

The schools presented their experience in applying the basis of quality assurance and accreditation obtained from AROQA. On the other hand, the attendees representing education directorates and public and private schools in Jordan discussed the basis of accreditation and mechanisms of quality improvement in Jordan.

This workshop aimed to set a general framework for quality and accreditation to evaluate the educational quality in Jordan's schools according to the standards and indicators of the academic accreditation of AROQA, establish quality assurance units in the schools and support developing systems and processes of the programs that include self-evaluation, internal reporting and continuous enhancements. This framework will help in the capacity building of the staff of schools and education directorates to qualify them for applying accreditation and quality standards and self-assessment reporting.

It is worth noting that AROQA launched the academic accreditation standards of schools in line with the international standards. It also dedicated all the resources and experiences to help schools obtain academic accreditation by preparing the academic and administrative staff in schools to apply these local and international standards and procedures and lead schools toward outstanding levels of educational services.