August 12th of each year marks International Population Day which was designated by the United Nations General Assembly on December 17th, 1999 as an annual celebration of the role of young women and men as key partners in change. This day presents an opportunity to raise awareness on the challenges facing this group all around the world. This year’s celebration is under the theme “transforming education” in order to highlight efforts, including efforts of youth themselves, to make education inclusive of everyone and more accessible to youth and emphasize the importance of Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
Inclusive and accessible education is crucial to achieving sustainable development. Education is a ‘development multiplier’ in that it plays a pivotal role in accelerating progress across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, be it poverty eradication, good health, gender equality, decent work and growth, reduced inequalities, action on climate or building peaceful societies. Education should lead to effective learning outcomes, with the content of school curricula and pedagogy being fit for purpose, not only for the 4th industrial revolution and the future of work and life, but also for the opportunities and challenges that rapidly changing social contexts bring.
International Youth Day 2019 will examine how governments, young people and youth-led and youth-focused organizations are transforming education and how these efforts are contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In Jordan, investment in education is one of the main national priorities as part of relying on human capabilities and their competitiveness in achieving prosperity. Despite its poor national resources, Jordan has achieved tangible steps in human resources development and transformation of education on different level as well as in providing a clear framework for all education-related sectors. These steps include:
Jordan’s great interest in the education sector was reflected through the achievements in this regard. Indicators of such achievements include:
According to the MoE’s Strategic Plan (2018-2022), the gross enrolment rate in KG2 among Jordanians (2015/2016) was 79.5% (80.6% among males and 78.3% among females). The enrolment rate in the basic level was 123.9% (124% among males and 123.9 among females) and enrolment rate in the secondary level was 98% (91.3% among males and 105.5% among females).
Despite the many achievements in the field of youth education, many obstacles continue to face Jordan’s progress in transforming education, most notably:
Considering young people in the Jordanian society aged (15-24 years) comprise 20% of the overall population, i.e. more than two million young man and woman, according to the Department of Statistics’ estimates for 2018 and since such rate is subject to increase in light of the demographic transition Jordan is going through, utilizing change in the population’s age structure and transforming such change to a real opportunity for development requires: