A proposal to reform the general secondary school certificate in Jordan

1. TAWJIHI
AS AN
ADMISSION TEST TO
UNIVERSITIES
Professor Walid Maani MD FRCSEd
2009

2. HIGH SCHOOL CERTIFICATE
The Tawjihi has been used as an
attestation to the completion of high
school.
However all those who finished 12th
grade and completed their school,
have school records which show their
performance.

3. HIGH SCHOOL CERTIFICATE
So why the need for another test to
do the same?
Tawjihi has nothing to do with certifying
completion of high schools

4. ACONDITION FOR EMPLOYMENT
The civil service bylaws indicate that
certain government posts can only be
filled with those “who passed the
Tawjihi”.
Do they mean those “who completed
high schools successfully?”

5. ATEST FOR EMPLOYMENT
So if they meant completion of high
school
Then the Tawjihi is not required as a
test for employment
The Civil Service bylaws should be
amended to reflect so.

6. Then
If Tawjihi
Is not attestation to completion of school
OR
Is not a test required for employment
SO WHAT IS IT THEN?
IT CAN NOT BE BUT AN UNIVERSITY
ADMISSION TEST

7. HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION
CERTIFICATE (HSCC(
A high school completion certificate should
be issued by the Ministry of Education to
every student who finishes the 12th
. grade.
The student must have one transcript of his
marks in the 11th
. & 12th
. grades, with
minimum and maximum marks for
individual subjects and for the total.

8. HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION
CERTIFICATE (HSCC(
This certificate could be used for
employment by the public and private
sectors
This certificate may be used for
admission to universities abroad
This certificate will not admit the
student to Jordanian universities

9. TAWJIHI AS AN ADMISSION
TEST
When universities look for students:
They may require students pass a test
They may require an interview
They may require an essay
OR
They may just ask you to show
proficiency in a number of subjects, for
any selected field, according to a
standardized test

10. TAWJIHI AS AN ADMISSION
TEST
The Council of Higher Education (CHE) with the
help of the universities, will divide the fields of
study into groups, like:
Medical
Engineering
Basic sciences
Humanities
Social sciences
The CHE will determine the number of studied and
tested subjects for each group

11. TAWJIHI AS AN ADMISSION
TEST
The CHE will determine which common
subjects should be studied and tested for
all students in all groups, i.e., Arabic,
English etc. (First Bundle)
The CHE will determine which special
subjects should be tested for each group,
i.e., biology is required for the medical
group but not for humanities (Second
Bundle)

12. TAWJIHI AS AN ADMISSION
TEST
The Ministry of Education (MoE) will
offer all subjects in its schools as
determined by the universities.
There shall be no streams, each
student shall study subjects he will
require when he submits his
admission application to universities

13. TAWJIHI AS AN ADMISSION
TEST
The student should complete 12
years in school before submitting an
application to universities
He can study subjects in the 11th
.and
the 12th
.Grades.
He could repeat a subject as many
times as he wishes until he thinks that
he has accumulated the required
numbers of subjects

14. TAWJIHI AS AN ADMISSION
TEST
The date of his Tawjihi should be the
date of the last test he passed.
The tests could be taken four times a
year
Admission to universities will continue
to be, twice in summer and winter

15. UNIFIED ADMISSION
Admission shall continue to be unified
Admission must be to a group for
which the student had collected the
required subjects.
A student may pick “as his first
choice” any field in the group he
selected.

16. THE 10TH
. GRADE
At the completion of this year the
students shall sit for a test to direct
them into 2 tracks:
Academic who shall be able to go to the
academic 11th
.and 12th
.grades and
afterwards to university
Vocational who will go to vocational
11th
.and12th.grades and afterwards to
community colleges.