Cabinet approves first ‘educational waqf’

AMMAN — The Council of Ministers has approved a plan to establish the first educational waqf (endowment), upon a recommendation by ministers of education, awqaf and finance, with the aim of urging the local community to support the educational sector, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Wednesday.

The endowment, the first of its kind for the Education Ministry, would help the ministry secure school buildings and carry out maintenance through urging citizens to allocate endowments of movable and immovable assets in favour of building schools.

The first endowment will be implemented on a 10-dunum plot of land with a cost of JD1 million to be paid by the Awqaf Ministry's endowment programme.

Once the project is completed, it will be delivered to the Education Ministry, Petra said, quoting a Cabinet statement.

The education and Awqaf ministries had earlier launched the “Educational endowment and social partnerships” initiative, with the aim of encouraging citizens’ donations for educational purposes.

The initiative aims at encouraging support for the Education Ministry to help it improve the educational environment through building schools, kindergartens and extra classrooms, as well as implementing maintenance works, contributing to school stationery and food programmes, covering costs of printing books and completing a Royal initiative to heat schools.  

The Education Ministry counts a lot on national efforts, whether by individuals or institutions, the statement said, to help meet the necessary requirements of the proper educational environment, especially under the significant increase in the number of students and inability to accommodate students transferring from private schools.

The ministry said that a 10-year plan it has devised entails building 600 new schools, school facilities, additional classrooms, kindergartens and laboratories, as well as carrying out necessary maintenance to existing facilities.