Amman, 08 March, 2022 - In partnership with UNESCO and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Minister of Education, H.E. Prof. Wajih Owais launched the Ministry of Education (MoE)’s WebGIS School Maintenance System ahead of a planned Kingdom-wide roll-out set to start at the end of March.
The MoE will roll-out its WebGIS Smart School Maintenance Module (SSMM) throughout Jordan in all 42 Field Directorates and 4,002 public schools by the end of June 2022. In preparation for the roll-out, 14 MoE Master Trainers received specialized training enabling them to train their colleagues at the central, field directorate and school levels through a series of cascade trainings.
The SSMM allows for all school maintenance needs to be electronically captured, monitored, analyzed, and used to inform evidence-based decision making related to preventive and corrective school maintenance and budget planning. The SSMM was developed to complement the MoE’s Geographic Information System (GIS), which was first implemented in 2016 with the support of UNESCO and linked to the MoE’s EMIS to optimize planning of school infrastructure and resources at all administrative levels of the Ministry.
The SSMM does not only support the MoE school maintenance workflows, but also the prioritisation, tracking, reporting, visualization as well as quality assurance of the overall MoE’s school maintenance procedures and regulations. These functions will be critical as investment in school infrastructure in Jordan has been increasing over the years and is expected to continue growing. The SSMM is also available as a mobile-based application for Android and IOS users to ensure the full accessibility of the tool. It has also been integrated in the MoE’s OpenEMIS database.
His Excellency, the Minister of Education, thanked UNESCO and GIZ for their continued support, and for their efforts to assist the Ministry of Education in overcoming the important challenges it is facing in maintaining schools and improving their infrastructure. “The launch of the WebGIS School Maintenance Module comes at an important time where we as a Ministry are working to streamline our procedures related to school maintenance. The training that will take place during the roll-out will be a critical next step in empowering our field colleagues to carry out such procedures” he said.
Ms. Min Jeong Kim, UNESCO Representative to Jordan, congratulated the Ministry of Education for launch of the SSMM, saying “Deploying a school maintenance module in WebGIS will transform the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of school maintenance requests in Jordan. UNESCO is happy to have the opportunity to continue supporting the MoE in further developing their existing WebGIS system to help the Ministry of Education in their efforts to make cost-effective and sustainable maintenance and infrastructure investments.”
The ongoing technical support provided by GIZ- Improving the Learning Environment at public schools in host communities (ILEPS) project in Jordan and Qudra 2 - Resilience for refugees, IDPs, returnees and host communities in response to the protracted Syrian and Iraqi crises programme, in partnership with UNESCO strategically aligns with the goals in the recently extended Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2018-2025 to improve school infrastructure in Jordan, as well as contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, and the Education 2030 Agenda.
The meeting was chaired by H.E. the Minister of Education, Prof Wajih Owais which was also attended by MoE officials, including, the Head of the Development Coordination Unit, Ms. Lama Al-Natour, the Director of the Queen Rania Center for Education and Information Technology, Engineer Ruba Al-Omari, the Director of the Department of Planning, Dr. Youssef Abushaar and the Director of Buildings and International Projects Department, Eng. Ibrahim Al Samama’a