Parents and teachers in Jordan demand immediate action plan to bridge education gap

During a lower house session of the Jordanian parliament on 5 January 2021, Deputy Yanal Freihat called for the immediate cessation of distance education and the introduction of a clear mechanism, regardless of the epidemiological situation, for the return of students to schools and universities in order to save students from falling back academically.  In the same vein, Jordanian mothers have criticised online education for impairing students’ communication skills, decreasing their attention span, and disregarding valuable information. It was also condemned for impeding the parents’ capacity to control their children’s screen time’ and augmenting stress, vision problems, and headaches, among other health problems due to the long hours students spend in front of screens. According to Freihat, who labeled this as ‘the distancing from education’, ‘regardless of the silver-tongued statements we heard from certain officials, mothers are best placed to assess the online learning experience, because they are the ones who endured stress with their children,’ said Freihat.