Admission average to Sharia faculties raised ‘to improve output’

AMMAN — The Higher Education Council (HEC) on Tuesday raised the minimum average of the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) for admission at the Sharia majors at universities from 65 to 80 per cent, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The decision came in implementation of a Higher Education Ministry’s recommendation approved by Cabinet last year, to raise the threshold acceptance average at Sharia (Islamic law) faculties to improve the quality of these schools’ outputs, as part of a national effort to fight religious extremism.

The decision, which has been criticised by some stakeholders as  putting the existence of Sharia studies at stake, was supposed to be applied gradually, with the admission average to be raised at first to 70 then to 75 and to 80 in the third year, so as to allow an evaluation process of the impact of the move. 

However, according to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, there is a shortage in thousands of preachers and imams in light of low enrolment in Sharia colleges and the expansion in building mosques, whose number exceeds 8,000 across the Kingdom, mostly built by wealthy private citizens. 

The other problem is that the majority of students in Sharia schools are females. In 2015, a former president of the University of Jordan has said, almost 80 per cent of the Faculty of Sharia students at the university were females.

Extremist thought among mosque imams has been acknowledged as a problem that should be addressed.

MP Mohammad Nouh Qudah, a former awqaf minister, told The Jordan Times recently that the Awqaf Ministry should hold meetings for its consultants and scholars with mosque preachers, where the former can refute extremist thoughts.