Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Zeina Toukan signed with the Country Director of the German Development Bank (KfW) office in Jordan, Matthias Schmidt-Rosen, in the presence of the Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Prof. Dr. Azmi Mahafzah, and a representative of the German Embassy in Amman, two financing agreements of two programs to contribute to support education sector needs.

The first agreement involves a grant of (25.5) million euros from the German government through the German Development Bank (KfW) to finance the salaries of additional teachers and administrators working in two shifts in public schools most accommodating Syrian students for the 2024/2025 academic year, where about (73) thousand male and female students will benefit from education in the Ministry of Education schools for the evening period according to the priorities of the Jordanian response plan to the Syrian crisis for the current year. This grant also constitutes the ninth phase of the German support program provided to finance the salaries of additional teachers and administrators working in two shifts in public schools most accommodating Syrian students, which began in 2016, to bring the total amount of the program to (202.4) million euros.

This financing is also part of a comprehensive initiative with other donors, aimed at contributing to the plan implemented by the Ministry of Education on the impact of the Syrian crisis on education in Jordan, and to accelerate access to formal education for Syrian refugee children, without affecting the quality of education for Jordanian students.

The second agreement represents the second tranche of the second phase of the Education Sector Development Policy Loan, at a value of (75) million euros, also provided by the German government through the German Development Bank (KfW), to support the general budget to contribute to implementing education sector reforms, improving and maintaining school infrastructure, and improving the quality of education within the framework of the reform program implemented by the Ministry of Education in line with the priorities of the education sector within the executive program of the Economic Modernization Vision for the years (2023-2025), which aims to improve the management of facilities in public schools and improve the quality of education by improving the infrastructure and raising awareness of students, teachers and communities in assuming responsibility for their schools.

The Minister expressed gratitude and appreciation of the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the German government for its continuous support to Jordan as one of the most important development partners over the past years, which contributed to the development of key sectors such as education, water and sanitation, vocational education and training, employment, and supporting the implementation of economic reforms.

For his part, Minister. Mahafzah stated that the Education Sector Development Policy Loan, financed by German Development Bank (KfW), contributed to updating the policies and procedures for a modernized system for maintaining public schools, as the system was reviewed and updated at three levels: the policy level, the central administration level, and schools level.

The Director of the German Development Bank (KfW) office, in his turn, stressed that his country realizes the scale of the challenges facing Jordan, particularly in the education sector, and supports Jordan’s efforts to overcome these challenges, as this financing comes to complement the efforts and existing cooperation with the Jordanian government in this sector.

The German government has already committed, during the Jordanian-German government talks on development cooperation for the years (2024-2025), held in Berlin during the period 6-7 of last May, to provide development assistance to the Kingdom of about (619) million euros, as grants and soft loans for the years (2024-2025) to finance priority development projects within the Economic Modernization Vision Executive Program, Public Sector Modernization Road Map, and the Jordanian response plan to the Syrian crisis.