Noura's cinderblock house in Aqaba
If you followed the news about Jordan’s high school exams (Tawjihi), you would have noticed that:

a. Girls have done much better than boys. The top marks are totally dominated by girls.
b. Public schools have outdone private schools.

A radical example is the story of Noura from Aqaba who came out as the top student in her city and the 7th top student of Jordan in the Arts stream.

She lives with her family, without electricity, in a two room cinderblock house (see picture above). Al Ghad has the story [arabic link]. It’s a pretty amazing story of determination and will power.

Tawjihi exams are not exactly perfect. But they are one of the few indicators we have about how the young people in Jordan are doing.

Maybe all of this is another indication that the future of the country largely lays in the hands of its women. All they need are a few more holes in the wall of male dominance and they will come storming through.

Another lesson here is the one the private schools, their students (and their parents) should learn. Get your act together!

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10 responses to “When underprivilged/female Jordan teaches the privileged/male Jordan a lesson”

  1. TJoLadies Avatar
    TJoLadies

    A policewoman friend of mine from Ramtha, with an extremely impoverished background, did well in her tawjihi and went on to get a Chevening scholarship in the UK where she got an honours in her Master’s and is now on a Fulbright Scholarship in the US doing her PhD on women’s rights in the Middle East.

    I have so much admiration for her as she has had to fight the backward looking PSD (at the time of her Chevening) and for her rights. She has done so well and amuses me (when she came back this summer) how she is bringing up her small son – seat belts are a must and no cokes and chips and sweets!

  2. Verbal Alchemy Avatar
    Verbal Alchemy

    nothing new there.. girls were always better than boys in academia, and usually people who get blinded by their priviliges perform less.

    what a wierd world!

  3. Tallouza Avatar
    Tallouza

    What an inspiration! Thank you for sharing this story.

  4. Darksky Avatar
    Darksky

    The top notch of private schools in Jordan are all doing either I.B or A Levels or AP. And their students are doing really well on the international scale.

  5. Hareega Avatar
    Hareega

    I’m less optimistic than you are Ahmed. See, this is not new. Females usually score way better than males in different Tawjihi branches. If you remember up until the mid-1990s there used to be an acceptance score for each college for males and another one for females and the score would be higher for females. I remember in the dentistry a female student scored 96.7 but the acceptance score for males was 96.5 and females 96.8 and she didn’t get in. She sued and won based on gender discrimination and she WON and she got accepted into the college.
    So just telling you it’s always females who score better, but they go into these highly competitive colleges and they continue to do well, but a lot of them get married and that totally kills their professional career. Among the top ten students in my med school there were 7 female students, only 3 are now specilizing while the other 4 got married and they couldn’t specilize because of social issues, even one of them was anot allowed by her husband to work so she stayed home.

  6. Majd Al-Shihabi Avatar
    Majd Al-Shihabi

    Indeed. Women have not had their chance at changing the Arab society yet. This is a very good indication that hopefully, a big change in how our society functions will be happening (sooner better than later.)

  7. Sid Vicious Avatar
    Sid Vicious

    We don’t need no education.

  8. Basem Avatar
    Basem

    Napeleon was

  9. Ahmad Avatar
    Ahmad

    so what if women do better in schools or academia, they don’t in business the money generator simply because they may have other priorities: family, research, whatever…
    but throughout history (if that is a good indicator of the reality of the situation) few women came with inventions, historical moments or breakthroughs.. again maybe because of their priorities or maybe because the society doesn’t expect them to do that..
    so let them be good in school, let them get 100 in tawjihi if they can, in the end it all comes to their achievements in real life, which till now are less than the under performing male students.
    now about being under privileged, well hail to that; i also have an MBA friend who grew up in Ajloun until 21 and is currently earning more than 150ks a year in Manhattan (in corporate finance, ya3ni legally!), and he’s still 30!! it all was due to his persistence and nothing else.

  10. Hani Obaid Avatar
    Hani Obaid

    I actually know a mother who sends her kids to a specific expensive private school because they don’t give any homework. What a joke.

    I don’t think it’s surprising that the less privileged will perform better, they’ve more riding on their success. I’ve also often noticed women doing better in school and caring more about their studies particularly in a mixed school.

    Unfortunately where I work in Amman, the reverse is true, the women work less hours (and almost never stay late), waste more time during the hours they do work. To top it off most of them don’t stay with the company long when compared with the men. I think this is partly why they are given less serious work, or maybe this result is actually the cause of the above deficiencies. I hope it’s not like that everywhere in Amman.