World Bank: $292 million disbursed for education reform program in Jordan
Amman Now _ World Bank report: Jordan’s education reform program exceeds targets for kindergartens and teachers
The World Bank upgrades Jordan’s education reform program rating to “satisfactory” ahead of its imminent closure.
135 children in KG2 and 547 students benefit from the interventions of the education reform program in Jordan.
World Bank: Jordan’s education reform program is making progress in early childhood education and school assessment
International report: 522 new kindergarten classrooms to be built as part of Jordan’s education reform program
The Jordan Education Reform Support Program has made progress in expanding access to early childhood education and improving student assessment and teaching and learning conditions for Jordanian and Syrian refugee children, as its final closing date approaches at the end of May, according to a World Bank report.
The World Bank raised the rating of progress towards achieving the program’s objectives from “fairly satisfactory” to “satisfactory,” and also raised the overall rating of progress in implementation to “satisfactory,” the highest rating in the assessment, noting that the program had entered its final stage and achieved nine verified financial disbursement-related results.
The results included enrolling refugee children in targeted schools, adopting a plan to expand kindergarten services, issuing technical guidelines for designing a private sector partnership model to expand KG2 services, establishing and operating new classrooms, training kindergarten teachers on the application of the current interactive curriculum, evaluating new teachers according to national professional standards, and training and certifying teachers from KG to grade 12 according to those standards.
The results also included equipping schools with updated water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, and rehabilitating schools to meet health and safety requirements. The report indicated that all program target indicators were achieved or exceeded, with the exception of the indicator for Syrian refugee beneficiaries, which was partially achieved due to a difference in the definition of the indicator and a decline in the number of Syrian refugees when the program was closed.
On the financial side, the total funding allocated to the program amounted to approximately $300 million, distributed between loans and grants provided through the World Bank and various funding funds, while the total amounts disbursed amounted to $292.04 million, compared to about $7.91 million expected to be disbursed before the project’s closure, with an overall disbursement rate of about 97.35%.
Some components of the financing also recorded a full disbursement rate of 100%, including a loan of $141.79 million and a grant of $50.21 million, while the disbursement volume from additional financing of $5.91 million amounted to about $5.77 million, or 97.63%, and from an additional loan of $81.40 million, about $75.17 million, or 92.35%
The report explained that the program came into effect on December 14, 2017, and was scheduled to close on May 31, 2026.
In early childhood education results, the number of Jordanian and Syrian refugee children enrolled in KG2 kindergartens increased from 80 children in December 2017 to 135,508 children as of April 27, 2026, compared to a target of 120 children.
The number of Syrian refugee children benefiting from the program’s interventions reached 163,477 as of April 27, 2026, compared to a baseline of 125 children and a target of 180 children.
The number of teachers who were assessed according to the new national professional standards and met the minimum performance standards reached 11,901 teachers as of April 27, 2026, compared to a target of 6,400 teachers.
The report indicated the adoption of a regulation that separates the function of the Tawjihi exam as a graduation certificate from its function to determine admission to higher education institutions.
With regard to kindergartens, 522 additional KG2 classes were established and operated up to April 27, 2026, compared to a target of 400 classes. In addition, television content for kindergartens was developed and broadcast, a national quality assurance system was piloted and its tools developed, an accreditation program for KG teachers was developed, and a report was prepared to design a partnership model with the private sector to expand KG2 services.
The number of government and private classes that met the minimum quality standards in KG2 reached about 2,599 classes as of March 4, 2026, compared to a target of only 200 classes.
In the area of improving the educational environment, the number of students benefiting from direct interventions to improve learning reached 547,251 students as of April 27, 2026, compared to a target of 404,575 students, including 257,755 female students.
The number of teachers who met the minimum standards for developing social and emotional skills reached 37,434 as of April 27, 2026, compared to a target of 20 teachers.
The report also noted 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 to 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 pathways, and the design of a national framework for student assessment, while the percentage of teachers’ satisfaction with the quality of participation in kindergarten training reached 93%, compared to a target of 65%.
The report also noted the operation of the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Open EMIS system to produce accurate and timely educational data, the development of a study to identify gaps in the adoption of blended learning, and the implementation of a curriculum alignment exercise to develop blended learning content.
The report indicated that the percentage of complaints resolved within 21 days through the grievance mechanism reached 91% as of April 27, 2026, while complaints that were incorrectly classified and rejected constituted less than 2% of the total complaints.