Representing the President of Yarmouk University, Professor Ziyad Zureikat, Assistant President of the University, sponsored the opening of the Learning Difficulties Treatment Unit in the presence of the representative of the Ambassador of the State of Kuwait to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the diplomatic attaché at the embassy, Abdullah Al-Khashab. The Unit, which was established as a part of a three-stage project titled “Designing Compensatory Programs for Learning Difficulties for Syrian Students”, was implemented by the Refugees, Displaced Persons, and Forced Migration Studies Center in partnership with the International Islamic Charitable Organization in Kuwait, the Islamic Development Bank, the Islamic Solidarity Fund, and the Humanitarian Excellence Society.
Zureiqat stressed that Yarmouk University, since its inception, has always been involved in all activities and projects that would serve the Jordanian and Arab community, calling for strengthening research partnerships and consolidating relations with institutions and research centers in the region and the world. He also said: “Yarmouk University, through its various units, scientific centers, and research projects, seek primarily to advance society and improve the services. Thus, Yarmouk believes in the necessity of developing the educational system at the local and Arab levels in light of the difficult circumstances of the region.” Zureikat continued: “from this standpoint, Yarmouk University sought to embrace such a major humanitarian project, which aims at diagnosing the learning difficulties of Syrian students in the basic stages, passing through building the necessary tools to address such difficulties, and building the capabilities of male and female teachers to implement all strategies to mitigate learning difficulties.”
Engineer Badr Samit, the Director General of the International Islamic Charitable Organization, gave a speech in which he said that one of the most prominent qualitative educational projects in recent years is the “Project to Design Remedial Programs for Learning Difficulties among Syrian Refugees and Displaced Persons,” where 38 academic and technical teams, including 164 academics, from Kuwaiti, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Lebanese universities participated in developing sustainable solutions for about 15,000 male and female students and about 2,000 male and female teachers. He added, the work teams formulate the project and began laying its foundations and rules mid-2021. He also explained that the project seeks to address the educational loss resulting from conditions of asylum, displacement, or emergency crises, by building compensatory programs and producing educational materials and curricula to address students’ problems, reduce the phenomenon of school dropout, qualify teachers, and support educational institutions in emergency situations.
The Project Director, Dr. Shaker Al-Adwan, reviewed the first three stages of the project explaining that the first stage called “Diagnosis” began by conducting a comprehensive desk survey that included reviewing more than 100 scientific studies to diagnose the learning difficulties theoretically and applying diagnostic tests to more than 1,000 Students in 20 schools inside the Syrian refugee camps at Mafraq, Azraq, and Irbid schools. It also included conducting 100 interviews with male and female teachers to identify the learning difficulties experienced by Syrian students in the first six grades and distributing 500 questionnaires to male and female teachers for the same purpose.
He added that the second phase called “Construction and Composition,” is to identify all learning difficulties experienced by Syrian students in the Arabic language, English language, science, mathematics, and social curricula. Also, it aims at providing an inventory of the psychological and social difficulties challenged by Syrian students. Based on this, guides for addressing learning difficulties got composed and reviewed with the participation of experienced, specialized, and highly trained professors from the Faculty of Education at Yarmouk University. For the third phase, Al-Adwan stated that it represented the “training” aspect of the Project and that it involved forming a team of trainers, facilitators, and coordinators from the project team leaders and team members to provide training services for 300 male and female teachers working in schools at the Syrian refugee camps and evening schools for Syrians.
The technical director of the project, Dr. Ali Al-Jamal, explained that the Project is considered an Arab educational task that addresses an educational problem facing the Ministries of Education as well as refugee education in terms of educational weakness, educational loss, dropout, and psychological and social problems. Moreover, the representative of the Islamic Development Bank, Dr. Ashraf Khaddam, gave a speech in which he stressed that the Bank participated in supporting and financing such educational projects to fill in the gaps and enhance scientific excellence in Education, training, and skill programs, based on its vision of empowering people for a sustainable future.
For his part, the representative of the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development, Muhammad Al-Jawabra, gave a speech in which he said that the Solidarity Fund is considered the poverty-fighting strategy of the Islamic Development Bank. It is, he said, an endowment fund with a sustainable impact that works on the basis of investing the contributions made to its capital from the member states and the Islamic Development Bank in Islamic Sharia-compliant investment tools for generating revenues that will be used to support various programs and projects to combat poverty in various sectors.
In addition, the member of the Humanitarian Excellence Society, Hamed Al-Rifai, gave a speech in which he reviewed the foundation of the Society and its deep belief that charitable work is an essential tributary for any society that is qualified to carry out its mission in reconstructing the land and instilling and developing a passion of volunteer and humanitarian work. Al-Rifai also reviewed the projects implemented by the Society in this field, pointing out that this Project reflects the Society’s role in human relief.
Noteworthy here is that the President of the University, Professor Islam Massad, had confirmed, during his meeting in his office with representatives of the supporting bodies and partners in implementing the Project, that Yarmouk University is one of the leading regional institutions in conducting studies and international projects concerned with refugee issues. He also said that Yarmouk has always been providing educational services to students and that it is the first Jordanian university to sign a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in an attempt to facilitate refugee students’ access to higher education.
