Ammon News - The World Bank’s report said that the "Jordan Education Reform Support Program" has made significant progress in expanding access to early childhood education and improving student assessment, as well as teaching and learning conditions for Jordanian children and Syrian refugee children, as the program approaches its final closure at the end of May 2026.

The World Bank upgraded the program’s progress toward achieving its objectives from moderately satisfactory to satisfactory, and also raised the overall implementation progress rating to satisfactory, the highest evaluation level. The report noted that the program had entered its final phase and successfully achieved nine disbursement-linked results that were verified.

These results included enrolling refugee children in targeted schools, adopting a plan to expand kindergarten services, issuing technical guidelines for designing a public-private partnership model to expand KG2 services, establishing and operating new classrooms, training kindergarten teachers on implementing the current interactive curriculum, assessing new teachers according to national professional standards, and training and certifying teachers from KG through Grade 12 based on those standards.

The results also included equipping schools with upgraded water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities and rehabilitating schools to meet health and safety requirements. The report noted that all program objective indicators were achieved or exceeded, except for the indicator related to Syrian refugee beneficiaries, which was only partially achieved due to differences in the indicator’s definition and the decline in the number of Syrian refugees by the time the program closed.

On the financial side, total funding allocated to the program reached nearly $300 million, distributed across loans and grants provided through the World Bank and various financing funds. Total disbursements reached $292.04 million, with around $7.91 million expected to be spent before the project closes, bringing the overall disbursement rate to approximately 97.35%.

Some funding components recorded a full 100% disbursement rate, including a $141.79 million loan and a $50.21 million grant. Meanwhile, spending from additional financing worth $5.91 million reached $5.77 million, or 97.63%, while spending from an additional $81.40 million loan reached $75.17 million, or 92.35%.

The report explained that the program became effective on December 14, 2017, and is scheduled to close on May 31, 2026.

In terms of early childhood education outcomes, the number of Jordanian and Syrian refugee children enrolled in KG2 rose from 80,000 children in December 2017 to 135,508 children as of April 27, 2026, exceeding the target of 120,000 children.

The number of Syrian refugee children benefiting from the program’s interventions reached 163,477 children as of April 27, 2026, compared with a baseline of 125,000 children and a target of 180,000 children.

The number of teachers assessed under the new national professional standards and meeting the minimum performance requirements reached 11,901 teachers as of April 27, 2026, surpassing the target of 6,400 teachers.

The report also noted the adoption of a regulation separating the Tawjihi exam’s role as a graduation certificate from its role in determining admission to higher education institutions.

Regarding kindergartens, 522 additional KG2 classrooms had been established and operated as of April 27, 2026, compared with a target of 400 classrooms. The program also developed and broadcast television content for kindergartens, piloted a national quality assurance system and its tools, developed an accreditation program for KG teachers, and prepared a report on designing a public-private partnership model for expanding KG2 services.

The number of public and private classrooms meeting minimum quality standards in KG2 reached 2,599 classrooms as of March 4, 2026, far exceeding the target of 200 classrooms.

In the area of improving the learning environment, the number of students benefiting from direct learning improvement interventions reached 547,251 students as of April 27, 2026, compared with a target of 404,575 students, including 257,755 female students.

The number of teachers meeting minimum standards for social and emotional skills development reached 37,434 teachers as of April 27, 2026, compared with a target of 20,000 teachers.

The report also pointed to the design and implementation of a social and emotional learning program in schools, and the upgrading of health, hygiene, and safety facilities in 330 schools compared with a target of 275 schools.

In the area of student assessment and education system reform, the report confirmed the implementation of a diagnostic test for third-grade students in reading and mathematics, the preparation of a plan to reform secondary education streams, and the design of a national framework for student assessment. Teacher satisfaction with the quality of participation in kindergarten training reached 93%, compared with a target of 65%.

The report further noted the operation of the GIS and Open EMIS systems to produce accurate and timely education data, the development of a study identifying gaps in blended learning accreditation, and the implementation of a curriculum alignment exercise to develop blended learning content.

It also stated that 91% of complaints submitted through the grievance mechanism were resolved within 21 days as of April 27, 2026, while incorrectly classified and rejected complaints accounted for less than 2% of total complaints.