Challenges

In March 2020, the Government of Jordan closed all schools. When schools partially reopened in September 2021, nearly half were still on rotation due to social distancing requirements. This meant that students attending these schools continued to lose in-person learning time. During the pandemic, a national online learning platform was established, but many children were unable to progress in their learning.

Now children are back in the classroom, but many are not at grade expectations. Teachers urgently needed data on what children know and can do, as well as resources to target teaching at the right level. The Ministry of Education and partners also needed data on learning to inform the design of learning recovery programmes.

Toward a Solution

The National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA) was designed by UNICEF in partnership with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and implemented in all schools with grades 4 to 11 in Jordan in 2022. The aim was to provide teachers with information on what children know and can do in Arabic and maths in relation to the national curriculum grade level expectations. Online resources were provided for teachers on how to address common student misconceptions identified though the assessment. It has also provided the Ministry of Education (MoE) with national results to better understand the degree of lost learning. The national report included recommendations on how to improve the teaching and assessment of maths and Arabic.

The NDA was implemented across all MoE schools, including refugee camp schools, from 28 February to 3 March 2022. According to MoE data, 78 percent of students (over 840,000 children) from Grades 4 to 11 had their results entered on a portal connected to the National Open Education Management Information Systems (EMIS). The results showed that most children were at least one or two grade levels behind grade expectations in maths and Arabic, with poorer results for the older grades. This shows the scale of learning loss post COVID-19 and the urgent need to remove policy barriers to teachers addressing learning recovery.

Prior to the assessment, a national communication campaign informed students, parents and teachers of the purpose of the NDA and that it was not a high stakes examination. The national campaign, which included three animations that were broadcast on television and other social media platforms, was critical to ensuring engagement with and the success of the NDA’s implementation in Jordan. Online training also prepared teachers to undertake the assessment and enter results for analysis. Directorate of Education supervisors provided support to teachers and schools across Jordan during implementation, as well as a helpdesk which was established within the MoE.

Undertaking an NDA is transformative as it allows teachers to understand what children know and can do post-COVID-19 extended school closures and provides the government with national outcomes. As part of the NDA in Jordan, all teachers have access to a dashboard with classand student-level results. The approach for teachers marking the assessments was also innovative. The marksheets did more than tell teachers what was right and wrong – they also showed teachers different possible answers and why students made errors. This supported teachers in understanding students’ misconceptions. Teachers could then use carefully linked online resources that gave them activities and ideas on how to teach students in a way that unpacked misconceptions and helped them to understand the concept correctly

National analyses of results are being used to inform the design of accelerated and remedial programmes by MoE and partners, and to identify schools that are particularly struggling. National grade level reports have been prepared by the MoE with UNICEF support, and district and school level reports are being made available.

The Ministry of Education of Jordan is considering whether to continue the NDA on an annual basis, which will enable tracking of learning recovery over time. The available data, portal and assessment tools are being considered as part of the national assessment strategy of the Ministry of Education.

Building on the success of the NDA’s implementation in Jordan and the scale of potential learning loss globally, UNICEF Jordan is sharing lessons learned and good practices from its experience. In August 2022, UNICEF Jordan was approached by UNICEF Qatar through the Regional Office to provide professional development support to Qatar’s Ministry of Education and school leaders. UNICEF Jordan prepared a presentation centred on professional development to support Qatar’s Ministry of Education to better understand how to identify learning loss. Components of an NDA were explored, as well as what is involved in setting up an NDA. Participants were then introduced to ideas around how learning recovery programmes can be designed to accelerate and recover learning. The experience of Jordan in assessing student learning post-COVID-19 was also shared with UNICEF Ukraine to inform the design of that country’s emergency education response. The results and approach have been shared with all countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Making data and resources available is only a first step; to be able to act on the data, teachers need to have policy barriers to learning recovery removed. As an example, they need to be able to cover materials from previous grades rather than progress with the grade level curriculum. Recommendations to inform decision-making by the MoE have been shared by UNICEF and discussed with the Ministry and partners. This requires dialogue across all departments, given the implications for curriculum, assessment, teaching and professional develop.