Jordan: Mitigating learning loss during prolonged school closures

• In Event: Roundtable Group 7
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Learning from USAID Arabic Literacy efforts across four Middle East and North Africa Countries

Proposal

In 2012, with USAID support, Jordan’s Ministry of Education conducted its first ever National Reading and Mathematics Assessment for children in Grades 2 and 3, revealing that the majority of students were unable to read and do mathematics with comprehension. In response, Jordan’s MOE and USAID launched a nationwide reform to advance Kindergarten 2 through Grade 3 literacy and numeracy reaching over 15,000 teachers and 1 million students in 2,550 schools. After investing in sustainable systems and policies pertaining to teacher continuous professional development, curriculum and teaching and learning materials, assessments and data utilization, and community engagement, Jordan witnessed tremendous growth in early grade literacy between 2015 and 2023 from 29% to 60% of Grade 3 students reading with comprehension.

Jordan’s achievements superseded significant challenges. The Kingdom experienced one of the world's longest school closures. However, within two weeks of school closing in March 2020, the MOE pivoted to online learning and prioritized early grade remedial education efforts, providing tailored teacher training, supplemental teaching and learning materials, and reading and mathematics kits to address school closures and distance learning in 2020-2021. These efforts demonstrated great achievements. While most countries lacked reliable data to measure learning loss, Jordan’s MOE and USAID ensured that the EGRA/EGMA was conducted in 2021 and annual LQAS in 2022 to monitor learning loss. The institutionalization of early grade reforms and strategic remedial education efforts have demonstrated that even despite COVID-19, Jordan witnessed nearly a 20% increase in grade 3 literacy between 2021 to 2023. Additionally, while mathematics results have stabilized to pre-pandemic levels, inequity of learning outcomes has decreased with a decline in zero reading scores.

Author

• Rina Dhalla, USAIDME Bureau