Education has played a transformative role in the development of Jordan from an agrarian, subsistence economy to a predominantly urban, industrialized nation. In July 2003, the government launched the Education Reform for the Knowledge Economy initiative, which is intended to upgrade the education sector and provide more comprehensive and appropriate services to its graduates.

The five-year Education Reform Support Program partnered with Jordan’s Ministry of Education to achieve the country’s national reforms. Professional development for teachers and principals, high-quality early childhood education, targeted training for youth in technology and life skills for careers and robust data collection combined to transform how children and youth learn in Jordan. The program was supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Together with the Ministry of Education, Creative’s program created a cadre of trainers equipped with skills to develop qualified and confident teachers through professional development. The program prepared 475 Ministry Trainers and reached almost 12,000 educators, principals and school supervisors with professional development training designed to improve pedagogy and learning in schools.

Creative teamed with the Ministry of Education to launch a Data Use for Decision Making initiative that allows Jordan’s educators to have access to information such as attendance rate and student achievement. Creative trained school principals and staff on the new uses of data, how to generate reports and how to analyze the data when making important decisions.

The program also worked to improve early childhood education, refurbishing 544 public kindergarten classrooms nationwide, renovating school playgrounds and training more than 5,000 kindergarten and grade one through three teachers on how to best use new facilities and teaching methods for better student learning outcomes. The Early Childhood Education programs improved the learning environments for more than 10,000 students.

For children unable to attend public kindergarten, the Education Reform Support Program’s Parent-Child Package program provided an at-home education program with trained teachers. Simultaneously, mothers were trained on strategies to use at home to promote their children’s school readiness, like using play dough to write letters, puppets to teach sharing and beans to count. More than 2,450 mothers participated.

Through its focus on Youth, Technology and Career Development, the program improved the confidence, learning, life skills and workforce readiness of youth nationwide. The School to Career initiative, a career counseling and job skills program for youth, reached more than 130,000 youth in 330 schools. The Life Skills through Sports program reached another 20,000 students.

Working closely with the Ministry of Education throughout the five-year program to build national capacity in education, the Education Reform Support Program ensured the continued success of Jordan’s schools and students and the sustainability of educational reforms.