What use is
education if it fails to help vulnerable Jordanians reach the turning points
they need to change their dire circumstances and, possibly, their destinies?
اضافة اعلان
Reimagining the
Jordanian educational system can genuinely provide disadvantaged students and
the low-income communities they usually come from with the mental and
psychological tools to break free from the vicious cycle of illness and
poverty.
To help the
vulnerable get out of the clutches of hardship and impoverishment, educators
have a moral duty to embrace creative and critical thinking in order to solve
the real-world problems of marginalized youth and children.
It is quite
daunting that at-risk children and teenagers are expected to waste 12 years of
their lives recycling their communities’ attitudes of lack and helplessness,
while being subjected to theoretical information that is completely irrelevant
to their contexts and circumstances.
Lamentably, such
informational spoon-feeding is mistakenly promoted as “education”. In a country
that seeks economic and political reform, education needs to be reengineered in
a multitude of ways to convert it from a broken machine into a vehicle for real
social and economic change.
Stuffing young
students’ brains with useless data is a road to nowhere. Education needs to
stop recreating the gloomy scenario of vulnerable schoolboys and girls
returning from school to their rundown homes only to face a harsh reality, and
probably violence and abuse by the often frustrated or mentally ill adults in
their lives.
It makes no
sense for schoolteachers, in their classic aloofness and one-track mindedness,
to require vulnerable and weak children to learn pointless data (by heart)
about things that will never matter to them, when those poor children could
barely muster the strength to fend for themselves in hostile environments
eroded by ignorance and poverty.
Can information
that gets deleted from the students’ brains the minute they step out of the
exam room change their lives for the better?
Lackluster
education that neglects giving students wings is a waste of valuable time.
Rooted in fatalism, it is a channel for reproducing self-defeating prophecies,
painful realities, cycles of social and domestic violence and cruelty, and
mindsets stuck in notions of scarcity and deprivation.
What
underprivileged children need is powerful leadership and mentorship that can
help them, with kindness and empathy, move from an attitude of scarcity to a
positive prosperity mindset. As such, empowering schoolchildren with practical
life skills is the answer that can help them challenge, and triumph over, their
bleak reality.
A drastic shift
in our educational system can empower vulnerable Jordanians to turn their lives
around. Rather than establishing typical mainstream schools across Jordan’s
impoverished areas, why not create an alternative schooling system that offers
children the tools to dream, hope and aspire for a better future?
Schools in
impoverished areas need to be turned into “empowerment centers” that can
transform the attitudes of small children, adolescent students and their
families into psyches of resilience, productivity and hope.
Instead of
futile curricula that place too much emphasis on measurement of their
scholastic performance, students can be offered uncomplicated courses in
Arabic, English, math, and physics without having to waste energy and time on
impractical details that miss the mark.
To this end,
there are three fronts to focus on: looking after the mental health of at-risk
youth and improving their overall emotional and psychological resilience;
providing them with soft skills (or what schools in the US call “home
economics”) like family finance, writing receipts, paying bills, and staying
organized; offering them a host of useful vocational skills that match their
individual aspirations and abilities – such as agriculture and farming,
carpentry and craftsmanship, sewing and tailoring, and hospitality and cooking.
Older students
in this kind of alternative and needs-based learning environment can then
graduate to advanced courses that teach them entrepreneurial skills, such as
coming up with a basic business plan, writing a proposal to request financing
for their small business or family-owned farm, and improving their sales and
marketing skills.
Our educational system lacks this nuance. It treats classrooms as workshops for soon-to-be-forgotten facts, rather than spaces meant to inspire the youth to overcome the circumstances holding them back.
Growing the
students’ potential and learning capacities will help steer children and teenagers
in disadvantaged communities toward employment (or self-employment)
opportunities that match their newly acquired mental, physical and
psychological abilities.
Our educational
system lacks this nuance. It treats classrooms as workshops for soon-to-be-forgotten
facts, rather than spaces meant to inspire the youth to overcome the
circumstances holding them back.
Telling children
born into poverty that they have what it takes to move mountains – if they put
their mind to it – is a powerful message that outweighs pushing students into
an educational hierarchy that is obsessed with exams and grades.
That is why our
educational strategists need to start adopting transformative learning models
that can alter the learners’ convictions and behavior in positive ways. New
learning models tailored to the needs of the various local communities will
help teachers transcend their traditional role as mere information spreaders.
This will allow them to metamorphose into emotionally intelligent mentors and
motivators who can empower a new generation of optimistic, persistent, and
productive members of society.
Telling children born into poverty that they have what it takes to move mountains – if they put their mind to it – is a powerful message that outweighs pushing students into an educational hierarchy that is obsessed with exams and grades.
This means that
the Ministry of Education will also need to develop employment eligibility
guidelines which ensure that only those with a balanced outlook on life, and
the ability to inspire students, are admitted into the educational ecosystem.
Teachers who
themselves are demotivated are incapable of inspiring their students to adopt
positive attitudes, and should never be part of the educational sector.
Having said
that, nuance and vision are the furthest thing from our government’s mind. The
first announcement the Ministry of Education made in response to recently
launched plans to reform the public sector was about “building more schools”.
This is such a worrying indication that the upper echelons of our educational
structures are trapped in a mentality of “quantity” rather than “quality”.
Like a broken
record, the state and the public sector keep on recycling the same bankrupt
vision that has driven our educational institutions into the ground.
We need leaders
with searing vision, stamina and drive to advance the development of our
learning institutions. Such talented and dedicated people are among us, but for
some unknown reason, they are left untapped.
In February,
former minister of youth Fares Braizat wrote an opinion column for
Jordan News,
titled “Radical education reform”, in which he shed light on the root problems
plaguing education in Jordan.
“The role of the
state in education is supposed to be enabling and skilling,” he wrote, adding
that, ironically, the current educational paradigm produces “weakly skilled –
yet educated – youth”.
Broadening the
youth’s horizons from a very early age, and opening them up to possibilities
that move beyond what they see and experience every single day of their lives
can work wonders to free them from the shackles of poverty.
Nothing compares
to opening the eyes of the struggling youth to the potential of a turning
point. Unconventional and insightful mentorship programs can most certainly put
them on a path toward turning the tide.
Ruba Saqr has reported on the environment, worked in the
public sector as a communications officer, and served as managing editor of a
business magazine, spokesperson for a humanitarian INGO, and as head of a PR
agency.
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