Abu-Ghazaleh: We support the efforts of the Minister of Education to enhance quality of teaching and ranking of schools

Special to TAG Educa News Agency

AMMAN – Under the patronage of HE Dr. Omar Razzaz and in the presence of AROQA Chairman HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the Arab Organization for Quality Assurance in Education AROQA) held a workshop (on “Quality Assurance, Academic Accreditation and Ranking of Schools”. The workshop which took place at the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum, was attended by school principals from Jordan, other Arab countries as well as representatives of international organizations. 

Addressing the meeting Minister Razzaz stated that the Ministry has started to develop educational policies to enhance quality assurance and its application on the ground. He added that the Ministry endeavors to establish effective partnerships with the private sector to support the development of high quality educational process.
“We established a quality and auditing unit and issued standards for an ‘effective’ school as well as for empowering schools through a specialized program to identify their needs and future plans towards high quality standards,” Dr. Razzaz announced.  

The Minister of Education expressed his appreciation to Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization for opening its doors to support the Ministry in all dimensions to build foundations for quality assurance, accreditation, and ranking of schools. He also thanked the Private Schools Association, pointing out that the ranking of private schools project would be completed before the end of this year. 

For his part, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh noted that the current education situation suffers a number of problems and its quality needs to be substantially improved. However, the motivations for change are enormous including the need for an internationally competitive education system to support youth across the Arab region where the  majority of the population is  below the age of 25 years.

Dr. Abu Ghazaleh said that change entails quality in education and motivates global educational partnerships to support the development of advanced educational curricula based on modern technologies and competitive learning environment.

He further pointed out that the required change for guaranteed quality incorporates the development of the educational policies by legislating laws and regulations that support educational approaches that can cope with modernity, enhance cultural innovation  and creativity, and support a shift from teaching to learning. 

During the workshop, standards of quality assurance, academic accreditation and ranking of schools were presented. The standards mainly focused on both administrative and academic aspects as well as the infrastructure, the educational outcomes and activities, creative skills, and new teaching techniques. 

The workshop was organized with the objective of setting the general frame of quality assurance, accreditation and ranking of schools to evaluate performance and quality of education at the Kingdom’s level based on accurate measurements that are related to excellence, governance, goals, outcomes, teaching methods, resources, and infrastructure.

It’s worth mentioning that AROQA has launched School Academic Accreditation Standards in conformity with international standards, and has devoted its resources and expertise to help schools acquire academic accreditation by preparing academic and administrative cadre to implement these standards and procedures to take schools to advanced levels of educational services.