Girls, again, leave boys behind in Tawjihi results

AMMAN – Girls continue to excel in the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi), with nine girls among the top 10 in the scientific stream, while female students claimed the top ten ranks in the literary stream, according to Education Minister Omar Razzaz on Thursday.

Girls also ranked at the top in the IT, agriculture and medical streams, the Tawjihi summer session results, which were announced on Thursday, showed. 

The trend of girls claiming supremacy in the test has been witnessed in the past years. 

Of the 125,375 students who registered for the session, 79,131 sat for the exam, including 47,512 regular students and 31,619 private-study applicants, Razzaz said, noting that the overall pass rate in the academic streams stood at 54.9 per cent. 

The pass rate in the vocational stream stood at 51.9 per cent of 4,335 applicants. 

"We would like to congratulate those who passed the exam and promise to offer those who did not a better educational environment in which they will be able to fulfil their dreams," Razzaz said, adding: "If the educational system was ideal, His Majesty King Abdullah would not have dedicated a discussion paper to urge a review of  the system." 

While calling on students who did not pass the test to not to give up hope of sucecss, he reiterated the ministry's new measures to ease the tension generated by the Tawjihi, including by allowing students to apply to the exam indefinitely. 

In previous remarks, the minister vowed that the exam would witness a "quantum leap" in the coming few years, taking into account students' individual abilities and preferences. 

"It is time to take off the ropes of fear in the education system," the minister said during the press conference held on Thursday.