Khaberni - The Minister of Education, Azmi Governorate, stated that the government is about to launch the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, which is considered one of the most important initiatives in the restructuring of the education sector.
This was stated during the dialogue session held by the Jordan Strategies Forum on Thursday titled: "The education system within the map of updating the public sector: pivotal transformation trends in the sector and its priorities for the upcoming stage."
During the session, which was attended by the Minister of Public Sector Development Badriya Al-Bilbeisi and members of the Jordan Strategies Forum from the private sector, Governorate presented the government's efforts in restructuring the education sector, explaining that it began more than a year and a half ago and involved a lot of work, discussions, and deliberations.
He clarified that the government does not consider the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development as a ministry based on merging two ministries from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research; rather, it has designed a new Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development with a new operational model that enhances the role of the ministry as a regulator and policy maker and enhances the role of education directorates as an entity managing implementation in the field with broader powers.
He indicated that this process was carried out collaboratively within the government and with key entities, most notably the Prime Minister's Office, the Minister of State for Public Sector Development, the Public Service and Administration Agency, the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Agency, and the Ministry of Labor; where the work was monitored and the design approved through a ministerial committee formed for this purpose, and many local and international experts were involved and intensive interviews and meetings were held with all stakeholders in the sector.
He pointed out that the government has completed the draft law for the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and is preparing to send the law to the House of Representatives next month. A draft of the administrative organization system has also been prepared, and work is ongoing to review the law of private universities to reflect some major amendments that enhance the autonomy of higher education institutions.
He explained that work is currently underway on the necessary preparations to activate the center of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development upon the issuance of the law according to a detailed activation plan for the ministry center covering 5 main work paths: human resources, operations and services, facilities and buildings, communication and awareness, and finally administrative/financial/technical systems, explaining that the ongoing preparations take into account the full activation of the center of the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development by August of the following year.
Governorate presented the most prominent features of the new system for the education sector, explaining that it includes the establishment of a national council that deals with the approval of national policies for human resource development in general, chaired by the Prime Minister.
He also explained that the most prominent features of the new system for the education sector lie in addressing previous imbalances such as the simultaneous undertaking of regulatory, policy-making, and quality assurance functions by some entities. He pointed out that the new Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development will take over the responsibility of policy-making for all educational stages including early childhood, basic, secondary, higher education, and vocational and technical training.
It also includes localizing quality assurance within the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Agency, and expanding the scope of quality assurance to include all educational and training institutions for all education stages, both public and private.
The features of the new system also include; designing a new organizational structure for the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, streamlined and consisting of 9 general departments with broad delegation of executive powers to education directorates. In addition, it enhances the status of education directorates by reducing their number to match the number of students and geographical areas, delegating more powers to education directorates such as managing student affairs, career guidance, and maintenance and construction purchasing powers.
The features also include enhancing the autonomy of universities and reducing the role of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development in higher education to the role of setting policies and technical standards, licensing facilities, verifying the compatibility of higher education outputs and vocational and technical training with labor market requirements and approving strategies.
Governorate also presented a number of key considerations, explaining that the main headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development will be the main building of the current Ministry of Education, in addition to some scattered buildings except for the Higher Education Directorate, which will remain in the existing building, and that no staff will be terminated during the activation stages, and all employees will continue to perform their tasks within the new organizational structure, and the initial activation of the center of the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development will start, then move to activating the new operational model for education directorates and merging them in the upcoming period over two years, and verification through government plans to ensure business continuity and full commitment to not disrupting any basic services during the implementation of the activation plan.
In turn, Al-Belbisi said that the establishment of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development comes as part of a road map for updating the public sector, aiming to modernize the education system, and creating a single reference for drawing educational policies.
She highlighted that the new system for the ministry does not diminish the required tasks and roles, ensuring no conflicts or gaps exist.
She pointed out that work is underway to establish a competency framework for employees in various fields, analyze and collect data, and develop different training policies and programs for education workers, and to study the workload within each directorate to ensure its capacity to perform the tasks required for the new ministry; to be able to draw policies, implement tasks, and measure impact.
On her part, the Executive Director of the Jordan Strategies Forum, Nesreen Barakat, stated that this meeting aims to provide feedback on the future vision of the structure of the education sector, which has been worked on by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in cooperation with various concerned entities and the Ministry of Public Sector Development, to ensure its foundation on scientific, realistic, and practical bases that balance ambition and capabilities and enhance sustainability of impact.
Barakat noted that the participation of forum members alongside government and private entities is part of a comprehensive national dialogue on the future of education, continuing the role that the forum has played as a main partner in formulating visions for economic and administrative updates.
She clarified that education has become one of the fundamental pillars in the state's update project, and that this session forms a shared thinking space to align the transformation of the education system with the pathways of updating, balancing vision and implementation and enhancing the achievement of sustainable change.
The dialogue session, which was moderated by the former Minister of Labor, member of the National Committee for Human Resources Development, Samir Murad, included a presentation titled "Restructuring the Education and Human Resources Development System"; presented by the director of the Education Update Office in the Ministry of Education, engineer Hind Al-Hindawi.
