The figure includes teachers who quit or lost their job. Overall teaching staff is down by 7.2 per cent over the previous year, mostly female (7,778) rather than male (2,381). COVID-19 and remote learning are the main factors. Total number of schools is also down.
Amman (AsiaNews) – More than 10,000 teachers and professors lost or quit their job, for an overall decline in Jordan’s teaching staff of 7.2 per cent over the previous school year.
The poor state of education in the Hashemite kingdom emerges from a recently released official report by the country’s Department of Statistics, this according to the London-based The New Arab online news website.
There were 7,778 fewer female teachers because of resignation or end of service. Among male teachers, 2,381 quit or saw their contract end.
The COVID-19 pandemic was one of main factors for the decline in teaching staff as it led to school closures and Internet-based remote learning.
Likewise, Jordan had 424 or 5.6 per cent fewer schools, down to 7,127, over 2021.
In view of the situation, a women's organisation, Solidarity Is Global Institute (SIGI), called for "overcoming the obstacles before teachers to preserve and support them to revive the educational process, especially in the recovery phase after the COVID-19 pandemic".
SIGI goes on to say that teachers, male and female, play an “essential” role by providing “quality education for all” and boosting hope for “better living conditions”. To this end, offering teachers “appropriate and decent working conditions” is crucial.
The report notes that 2,117,307 students were enrolled in primary and secondary schools for the 2020-2021 academic year, 49.4 per cent or 1,074,656 were female. They represent 19.7 per cent of the kingdom’s total population.
The number of teachers in the academic year 2020-2021 stood at 130,089, 69.5 per cent female, down from 140,248 teachers in 2019-2020.