On Tawjihi and edu stuff...

I've been trying to avoid writing about Tawjihi... well because a lot of people already did... though I have a sister who was tawjihi this year...
But when the Universities acceptances came out... and my sister who scored well enough at Tawjihi didn't manage to get accepted into a major I know she can easily and passionately excel at... I felt that... enough is enough...
Let me start by establishing this fact... Tawjihi is a rotten old-fashioned system!!
Yes I'll be bold enough to stand by this self-professed fact...
First flaw in the system is the selection of subjects that students have to study during this one year... it depends mainly on which stream you are following... if you are in the scientific stream then you have to study; Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology. Regardless of what you plan to study at the University later on... and of course you have other courses that you share with almost all tawjihi streams which are; Islamic Education (barley deserving the title), Arabic language, English language, Computer skills and General Culture (whatever that means)... again this has no direct relation to what you plan to study later on...
Second flaw is the boring books... don't be misled by the new colorful design and improved layout (though it is one right step taken toward improvement)... the content is as boring as ever.... the amount of information contained is huge and most of the information will be forgotten one month after the exams end since they are not needed in real life...
Third flaw is the grounded teachers' mentality of how to study properly for the Tawjihi exams... which is memorizing the books as hard as possible and sticking by them, taking everything in them as facts... the less you question what you are taught as universal facts... the better you'll score...

Enough ranting about Tawjihi... and let us proceed to another tragedy... applying for universities...
Students are being accepted according to how they scored on all the subjects they studied... let us give this example...
Student A... scored the best in Physics and Geology and not so good in Biology and Chemistry... but his total score is high enough to apply for the Medicine school... since from these four subjects only the highest two will be used to calculate the final tawjihi grade...
Student B... scored much better than student A in Biology and Chemistry... but his total score is lower by a few points from student A...

If students A and B have no real clue to what are the different specialties and career paths offered at the universities mean like most public schools graduates... they'll both apply for the Medicine school... Student A because he scored high enough... and student B because he wants to be a doctor...
The results are out and guess what... ! Student A is accepted... student B is not!!!
Which do you think of the two is more eligible?

Tawjihi by no means is the best indicator of how students should be accepted at universities...

The implication of this wrong placement of students is more dangerous than just being placed in the wrong major... and moan about it...
just imagine all the people that graduated and started working in a job that they don't really like... or not passionate about... jobs that are done mechanically...
and imagine all the frustrated people that didn't get a chance to study what they want... and continued resentfully in a career they loath...

Imagine these people ten years... twenty years from now... imagine all that... that's Jordan now...

So what's the solution?
Maybe we should take some successful case studies from the world... and try to learn and apply according to our needs...

Tawjihi should be thrown into the recycle bin before we lose more generations....
That's step one...

Step two should be educating students from much earlier ages about the different career paths... let them learn what does it mean to be a physician... an architect... a philosopher... a teacher... and a trained actor...

Step three should be educate the educators about how to engage students mentally and physically with what they learn...

Step four should be using placement exams when applying to universities... this whole how high you scored at tawjihi is a rubbishy indicator....

If we are to build a better country... if we are to compete with the rest of the world... re-inventing our educational system is a MUST!

I hope someone will listen... and take some real actions...


Another educational problem we have is the equal opportunities standards used in public universities...

..... to be continued...