Educational Experts: Private schools classification is a strategic step to enhance education quality and promote transparency

They pointed out that the entry of this system into force after its publication in the Official Gazette, following the Council of Ministers' approval of the reasons for its draft last July, places the private educational sector before a new phase titled governance and institutional transparency.

They noted that the upcoming phase depends fundamentally on competitiveness based on scientific standards and objective performance indicators that are measurable and subject to continuous evaluation, which ensures the efficiency of educational institutions' outputs at various levels. Educational expert Faisal Tayeh stated that the classification system for private educational institutions constitutes an important step toward enhancing the quality of education and transparency in the sector by creating a national reference that allows the evaluation of schools and kindergartens according to clear and specific standards, and that the project's importance lies in expanding choices for citizens and empowering parents to compare schools on clear bases and standards, helping them make more conscious and reassuring decisions when choosing the appropriate educational institution for their children.

He added that the proposed classification is based on 6 main axes, including educational quality, school environment, human resources, innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity, leadership and management, and community partnership, which provides a more comprehensive evaluation of educational institutions' performance rather than restricting the judgment of their quality to academic results alone.

He stressed the importance of coupling the implementation of the system with effective monitoring and follow-up mechanisms that ensure educational institutions' adherence to approved standards and verify their application in a fair and transparent manner, alongside the clarity of evaluation indicators and their weights, ensuring equal opportunities among schools and boosting public confidence in classification results.

He pointed out the necessity for the classification to be a tool for continuous development and improvement rather than merely a competitive ranking among institutions, by utilizing evaluation results to identify strengths and weaknesses and encouraging schools to elevate their performance levels and the quality of their educational outputs.

He stressed that the success of the system is linked to the extent of transparency in evaluation procedures and making classification results available to parents in a clear and easy manner, enhancing their ability to compare schools according to objective standards and placing the student's interest and educational quality at the forefront of priorities.

Dr. Maha Al-Khatib, Principal of Al-Hekma Girls Schools, stated that the approval of this system entrenches the approach of transparency, accountability, self-evaluation, and institutional assessment in the private educational sector, which is considered a qualitative shift in evaluating school performance quality. She considered that the approved evaluation standards are comprehensive and directly contribute to motivating these institutions toward self-development, continuous improvement, efficient investment in infrastructure and technology, and developing educational staff and education quality in general.

She indicated that carrying out classification and evaluation processes can ensure the sustainability of development operations and grant educational institutions equal opportunities to correct their course and improve their classification category to provide the best services.

She emphasized that this periodic review creates a positive competitive environment among schools that is directly reflected in the quality of educational and pedagogical outputs, making investment in minds the primary standard for institutional excellence and success.

She pointed out that the new system directly serves the interest of citizens and parents as the primary partner in the educational process, reshaping the relationship between the family and the educational institution on foundations of absolute transparency and clarity. This is achieved by expanding parents' options and empowering them to make well-studied decisions based on reliable and cross-checked data, allowing them to choose the appropriate school for their children based on declared and clear standards away from inaccurate media promotion or personal estimations.

Al-Khatib stressed the necessity of adopting the highest degrees of accuracy and objectivity in classification processes by defining clear and verifiable measurement indicators and applying them uniformly to all educational institutions to ensure the fairness and credibility of results. She also emphasized the importance of instilling transparency in the work of classification committees, ensuring integrity and independence in evaluation procedures, and disclosing the bases for calculating scores and decision-making mechanisms to boost confidence in classification outputs and prevent any discrepancies or interpretations not grounded in clear standards.

For her part, Dr. Enas Bakeirat, Principal of Kingston Schools, affirmed that the future of school education in Jordan is gaining new momentum and promising horizons thanks to this integrated national system, which is the first of its kind in the region. Requiring schools and private institutions to display their official classification certificate in a prominent place inside their premises and on all official documents issued by them represents a genuine guarantee of educational consumer rights and enhances community confidence in the national educational system.

She emphasized that involving a specialized classification committee and technical teams comprising experts and specialists, with the possibility of enlisting specialized expertise from both the public and private sectors, ensures the highest degrees of professionalism, objectivity, and complete neutrality in evaluation procedures, firmly establishing a strong conviction among everyone in the fairness of results and the integrity of outputs.

She pointed out that the new system can reorganize the entire educational process, precisely define its roles, and regulate its pace according to a comprehensive vision that keeps pace with global best practices in educational governance. The system also enhances the role of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development as a regulatory and supervisory body capable of monitoring the performance of private educational institutions and periodically and accurately measuring the quality of their outputs.

She noted that the system encourages schools to move toward innovation, entrepreneurship, and the development of 21st-century skills among students, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and technological orientation. This direction aligns with national visions toward a knowledge-based economy and the rehabilitation of human cadres to cope with future labor market requirements and sustainable development challenges, making classification a primary engine for advancing education as a whole in the Kingdom and raising its regional and international competitiveness.