Study brings education to fore ahead of int’l Youth Day

AMMAN — Young people between the ages of 10 and 24 make up one-third of the Kingdom’s population, which is the highest percentage of youth Jordan has ever registered. This provides “a unique opportunity” for social and economic development, yet Jordanian youth face several challenges, Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI) said on Tuesday. 

Citing a study issued by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth in February 2018, SIGI said that 29 per cent of young people in 2015 were not enrolled in education, work or training.

In a statement issued on the occasion of the UN International Youth Day, which is annually celebrated on August 12, the institute noted that the rate of female young people who were not enrolled in education, work or training was three times the rate among their male peers. 

The rate was 43.8 per cent among females and 14.5 per cent among males, according to SIGI.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among Jordanian youth (between 15 and 24 years old) in 2018 stood at 43.5 per cent (45 per cent among males and 40 among females), compared to the general rate of unemployment among all the population (15 years and older) that stood at 18.6 per cent. 

In figures, 140,334 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years suffer from joblessness (101,473 males and 38,861 females), according to the institute. 

Estimations by the end of 2018 showed that Jordanians in the Kingdom amounted to 7.287 million, where the number of Jordanians aged 15 years old and older stood at 4.789 million including 2.21 million females and 2.57 million males, SIGI added, referring to figures by the Department of Statistics. 

The institute pointed out that 94.9 per cent of Jordanians who are 15 years old and older are educated, with an illiteracy rate of only 5.1 per cent, while illiteracy among females is higher than among males, standing at 7.2 and 3.1 per cent, respectively. 

The theme of International Youth Day 2019, “Transforming education”, highlights efforts to make education more relevant, equitable and inclusive for all youth, including efforts by youth themselves, according the UN website. 

Rooted in Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” — International Youth Day 2019 will examine how governments, young people and youth-led and youth-focused organisations, as well as other stakeholders, are transforming education, and how these efforts are contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“Statistics remind us that significant transformations are still required to make education systems more inclusive and accessible,” the UN said on its website.

Only 10 per cent of people have completed upper secondary education in low-income countries; 40 per cent of the global population is not taught in a language they speak or fully understand, and over 75 per cent of secondary school age refugees are out of school, the organisation noted.