Classes resume at Sama Sarhan schools

AMMAN — Classes resumed at Sama Sarhan schools on Monday after an agreement was reached between the Education Ministry and Sama Sarhan Municipality to address overcrowding.

Families in Sama Sarhan in Mafraq Governorate, some 80km northeast of Amman, had decided not to send their children to schools starting October 27 and planned to continue the protest until a solution was found to accommodate Syrian students residing in the area.

Under the agreement, reached during a recent meeting between a delegation representing the town’s residents and Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat, a new school will be built in the area.

Syrian students, estimated at 420, will be moved to a school in the neighbouring town of Zamlat Al Tarqi, which currently has 10 classrooms and only 38 students, but can accommodate around 400 children, according to Sama Sarhan Mayor Ali Sarhan. “Syrian and Jordanian students alike used to suffer from a very bad education environment and fatal overcrowding,” Sarhan told The Jordan Times over the phone on Monday.

In earlier remarks, he noted that the area is home to more than 5,000 Syrians and was classified by the government as a poverty pocket in 2005.

Thneibat was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on Thursday as saying that the ministry will soon float a tender to build a new school in Sama Sarhan to replace rented school buildings in the Northeastern Badia town.