Strengthening diverse and inclusive education in Jordan

Context

Children with disabilities face significant disadvantages in Jordan. The Jordanian Ministry of Education estimates that more than two thirds of them have no access to education. Children from families with a refugee background are particularly at risk. The Jordanian Government wants to improve this situation.

While considerable progress has been made on the political level, schools are struggling to put inclusive education into practice. A lack of knowledge and skills on implementing inclusion, inadequately prepared teachers and overcrowded classrooms make it difficult to meet the needs of all children and to create a learning environment that caters for vulnerable children especially those with disabilities.

Objective

The Jordanian Ministry of Education is successfully implementing the Inclusive Education Strategy.

Approach

The project’s work has four priority areas:

• Education policy: The project supports the Jordanian Ministry of Education to better plan, coordinate and consider children with disabilities in education policy.
• Cooperation with schools: Together with the Ministry of Education, the project also supports a total of 60 schools in putting inclusion into practice on a day-to-day basis. The project supports schools to create and implement inclusive school development plans. For example, schools might improve teaching methods, offer creative project weeks, or hold events for parents on the subject of inclusion.

• Training for teachers: The project is working with the Jordanian Ministry of Education on developing and running seminars and training sessions for teachers and Ministry staff. The aim is to enable teachers to work with all children individually even in large classes and to design their lessons to allow children to learn based on their abilities. This will contribute to ensuring that all children, especially children with disabilities, can participate in learning.
• Awareness of inclusive education: In addition, the project supports the Ministry of Education in implementing events, media campaigns and art project weeks to foster inclusion and break down prejudices around children with disabilities at schools, in the community and at a national level.

Last update: October 2024