'Education Ministry trained over 50,000 teachers in 2015'

DEAD SEA — The Education Ministry has trained more than 50,000 teachers this year, as it deems rehabilitating educators a top priority, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat said on Saturday.

Speaking to The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the second Teacher Skills Forum, Thneibat noted that training of teachers has been on the rise since 2012 in response to the new developments in the region, which have resulted in more crowded classrooms.

"The ministry will soon establish a college specialised in training and rehabilitating teachers," he said.

"The budget allocated for training stood at JD2 million two years ago, but has reached JD20 million this year," Thneibat said, adding that the ministry's training efforts will be held in cooperation with the Queen Rania Teacher Academy.

"The academy will be the executive wing of our training programmes," he said, underscoring the importance of the forum in changing educators' mindsets on emerging challenges facing the educational process.

Citing Their Majesties King Abdullah's and Queen Rania's focus on education, he said the ministry is embarking on comprehensive education reform that includes changing school curricula.