Queen Rania Rewards Distinguished Teachers

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - Amman) As teachers around the world celebrate World Teacher's Day, five outstanding educators in Jordan are celebrating their recognition as the most distinguished teachers in the Kingdom.

In an awards ceremony, held in honor of those distinguished teachers, on Wednesday, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah distributed the first annual award for excellence in teaching and praised all the teachers for their efforts in advancing the potential of students. "We know the enormous responsibilities you are shouldering and we are proud of your achievements and your work ethic," said Her Majesty, "let me reassure you that as you do so we stand by you and support you in this vital endeavor."

This year’s first place winners were chosen from more than 1,100 nominees. Naeem Ali Al-Abeesi Al Bawayzeh received the Distinguished Teacher Award for KG – 3rd grade; Maha Harbee Abdulaziz Al-Shaksheer for 4th -8th grade; Hiyam Khader Yusim Abu Areedah for 9th and 10th grade; Khawla Abdulmihdee Ali Al-Ma'ayah for the Academic Tawjihi; and Hannah Mikhael Abdullah Al-Saeed Maqtash for the Vocational Tawjihi.

Each of the first place winners will receive a JD 3,000 prize, a rank promotion from the Ministry of Education and extra points to compete for the position of educational supervisor in order to earn a scholarship to one of the Jordanian universities. As distinguished teachers, they will also assist in training programs to motivate other teachers.

The Jordan Education Trust (JET) presented the monetary prizes. JET also granted the first place winners an overseas scholarship

Queen Rania, who called the teachers Jordan's true wealth, said, "My own children bombard me with questions all the time and that's when I realize how difficult teachers' jobs are… they have dozens of children expecting answers all the time."

Her Majesty acknowledged the many material and professional challenges in the field of education. "Jordan is working to overcome these challenges we're making good progress in achieving our goals," she said, "developing technology and communication resources, encouraging innovative teaching practices and inspiring creativity amongst our best and our brightest."

A group of young performers acted out a short comical skit where they discussed the qualities they believed are important for a teacher to posses. At the end of the skit, the students were asked to define excellence. "That's easy, here it is," they said, as they pointed to the audience, which included every teacher that was nominated for this year's award.

The Queen Rania Award for Distinguished Teacher 2006 is the first in a series of awards to be presented in the coming years, under the umbrella of the Queen Rania Award for Excellence in Education, which was launched last year. During the ceremony, a video was shown highlighting the award's milestones and outlining the selection process.

Minister of Education Khaled Touqan attended the ceremony, as well as the Award Higher Committee, the Technical Committee, Evaluators' Committee, Directorates’ coordinators and media representatives. Haidar Mahmoud, the well-known poet, was the master of ceremony.