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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - A number of countries on Monday announced they will donate JD51 million to support Jordan's plan to "accelerate access to quality formal education for Syrian refugee students" in the school year 2018/2019.

Donors, including Germany, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States, reaffirmed their commitment to provide quality education for every child in Jordan regardless of their nationality.

They gave up to JD51 million to cover a large proportion of the Ministry of Education’s requirements for the new school year, and committed to additional funding of JD2.7 million from Australia, JD2.7 million from Canada, JD10 million from EU, JD17 million from Germany, JD1.5 million from Norway, JD9.2 million from the UK, JD0.7 million from the US.

The donations will provide 130,000 Syrian students with quality education, employ and train new teachers, pay teachers' and administrative staff's salaries, open additional double shift schools, purchase school books, provide tuition fees and cover costs for operations and equipment in these schools.

Minister of Education, Azmi Mahafzah, invited the donors to the Ministry of Education where he reiterated Jordan’s commitment to provide education for all children.

Mahafzah gave an on progress of the Ministry’s plan for "accelerating access" and asked for the continuation of financial support for the 2018/2019 school year.

The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation followed up on donors’ commitments that they made in the Syria conference held in London in February 2016 to support Syria and the region.

The Minister and donors agreed that the focus of this year will be on reaching out to children who are not in school, increasing the number of kindergartners and providing quality education.

Schools will be better equipped by providing electricity to all camp schools, increasing the number of libraries, computer labs and science labs, he said.

The Minister and donors also agreed to work together to continue the support of efforts made by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation in providing and managing funds to top priority programs and projects.

Mahafzah underlined the importance of strengthening the quality and capacity of the education system to improve the learning outcomes for all children as set out by the recommendations of the National Strategy for Human Resources Development 2016-2025 and the Education Strategic Plan 2018-2022.

The donor countries praised the commitment of the Jordanian government and the Ministry of Education to provide educational opportunities for all children in Jordan, including refugees.