Back to School … Or Back to Screens?

All pupils in Jordan will return officially to schools on September 1st for the first time since
October 2020 with many concerns from their parents and teachers regarding going back to
distance learning.

Parents are waiting this year with expectations from them to the possibility of switching to
distance learning after a while like what happened in the last academic year. The majority of
the parents were surveyed claimed that they don’t ‘trust’ the Ministry of Education and the
rumours on social media are playing a significant role in making their decisions regarding
continuing their children in private schools.

Similarly, private schools are not sure about hiring new staff or continue with what they have
from the previous year. Teachers on social media have complained about the hiring process this
year and how it is different than before. They claimed that they have done many successful
interviews with no reply from the schools. The reason behind that is most likely because
schools are not fully sure about the situation in the new academic year and they are not ready
to take any risk.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Education assured that the students will be back to face-to-
face learning this year as long as the health protocol will be applied, and all the staff were
vaccinated -with no less than one month to the first dose date-.

In a previous meeting with the Epidemiology Committee Member, AlHijjawi, who stated that as
more people are getting vaccinated as the waves are becoming less intense. This was confirmed
by the Minister of Health Feras Hawari in a recent interview with the Jordan News Agency
(Petra) that the epidemiological situation in Jordan is steady due to the increased demand for
vaccinations.