Ammon News - ** Gov’t spokesperson: Resignation of Education Minister not in question
** Badran fully accepted ethical & moral responsibility before Cabinet
** Ed. Minister: Ed. Ministry requested outside experts for auditing student files
** Correcting mistakes ‘maximum by the end of this week’
** Justice Minister: Inquiry Commission commences investigation ‘before end of week’
** Inquiry results to be announced ‘in upcoming few days.’
** Comm & IT Minister: Must put all Tawjihi results on one main site
** This ensures quality, programming, & proper implementation of ministry regulations.


AMMONNEWS - State Minister for Media Affairs and Communications, Nabil Sharif, said Sunday evening that specialized technical cadres began correcting the mistakes committed in publishing Tawjihi results, adding that the government is awaiting the results of the investigation launched by the commission of inquiry, Jordan's News Agency, Petra, reported.

In a press conference Sunday evening that included the government spokesperson, Nabil Sharif, Minister of Education, Ibrahim Badran, Minister of Justice, Ayman Oudeh, and Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Marwan Jumaa, a question was posed regarding the possibility of the Minister of Education's resignation.

Sharif responded that Dr. Badran fully accepted the ethical and moral responsibility before the Cabinet, explaining that the matter of Badran's resignation is not in question considering that what had happened is purely a technical glitch.

On his part, Minister of Education Dr. Badran said that dealing with information technology 'sometimes leads to mistakes,' adding that the ministry takes full responsibility in this context.

''We must deal with the glitch in a scientific and realistic manner, despite all the auditing and testing mechanisms available at the ministry," Badran said.

Badran stressed that Tawjihi, the General Secondary Certificate Exam, enjoys a high level of credibility locally and internationally for over 50 years, explaining that the backbone of this credibility is the exam itself.

Badran explained that the glitch happened in handling the data from the main system, either during uploading them on the Internet, or during copying them on the CD's.

The data was taken from the ministry's main system and were uploaded on the Internet 'without creating programming means for each datum,' Badran added.

The minister noted that the Ministry of Education has requested experts from outside the ministry to go through the process of auditing all students' files to ensure that the transfer of each file from the main system onto the CD or Internet will be correct.

Badran stressed that this is the immediate measure taken to correct the mistakes in a period "maximum by the end of this week."

On his part, Minister of Justice Ayman Oudeh, who is heading the commission of inquiry in this matter, said that the commission will commence its investigation 'before the end of this week' to reach the real causes that led to this glitch.

Oudeh stressed that the results will be 'announced in the upcoming few days.'

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Marwan Jumaa explained that human and technical errors had occurred by employees that dealt with the data containing the Tawjihi results.

To prevent this in the future, Jumaa called for the necessity of putting all Tawjihi results on one main site at the ministry, whereas other electronic sites can take the results directly from the main sites, avoiding having to copy them on CD's and distribute them.

This, according to Jumaa, would ensure quality, outcomes of programming, and ensure proper implementation of the regulations related to Tawjihi results.