Queen Rania Attends JEI Executive Board Meeting

(Jordan Times - Amman) Her Majesty Queen Rania on Tuesday said Jordan now has the necessary infrastructure to meet all the requirements of the Jordan Education Initiative (JEI). The initiative, which has been piloted in 100 discovery schools, seeks to improve the development and delivery of education through public-private partnerships, and in the process, help the government achieve its vision for education to act as a catalyst for social and economic development. During a meeting of the initiative’s executive council, the Queen said that the IT infrastructure, training, curricula and administrative systems are now in place to facilitate its implementation in all schools. The executive council includes Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khalid Touqan, Minister of Information and Communications Technology Omar Kurdi, the initiative’s CEO, Fawaz Zu’bi, along with private sector representatives. Queen Rania urged the Ministry of Education to design criteria to evaluate the initiative’s performance, including the application of IT and various training programmes. Comprehensiveness, balance and sustainability are the key words, she said. The meeting marked the end of the JEI’s foundation phase and the beginning of the implementation stage. The initiative, launched on the sidelines the World Economic Forum annual meeting at the Dead Sea in 2003, also aims to build the capacity of the local information technology industry for the development of innovative learning solutions in partnership with world-class firms. Another major objective is to help the country build a model of educational reform that can be exported to and replicated in other countries.  In addition to the WEF, the sponsor of the JEI, the initiative has 25 international private sector partners, especially in the IT sector, 17 local establishments and 11 government agencies and NGOs. Jordan Times, Wednesday, November 22, 2006