Queen Rania Award

In Jordan, there is an event that honors persons who contribute to the field of education called the “Queen Rania Award”. The purpose of this award is to shed light on the educators who make a great contribution to education and to express appreciation for their leadership and service, as well as to promote these good practices and recognition to the public.

Three different awards are presented at this event. One award is presented to an “outstanding teacher”, a second award for an “outstanding leader” and the third is for an “outstanding school president”.

In 2015, JEN worked at more than 100 public schools to restore water and hygiene facilities, as well as to promote  hygiene education and practice.

In a school in Tafilah, where we carried out these activities, school teachers played an active role with Jen in promoting these practices. This improved not only the practices and attitudes of the students but also the situation of the Mosques and surrounding areas.

JEN’s hygiene promotion team was able to witness these changes firsthand during monitoring periods.

Great changes were seen. More than 90% of students now clean the school restrooms, classrooms and hallways. They also hand-create posters about cleanliness. One teacher said to us that the, “students started to make so much effort for the school. It looks like they are now feeling responsible for maintaining the facilities and having autonomy”.

Moreover, teachers asked and helped students to clean inside the mosque. Also students’ fathers came to help rebuild school facilities and gather piles of trash scattered around the school grounds. Further parents operating a bakery began making sandwiches for students who cannot bring lunch with them to school.

After this success, two schools in Amman also started to clean their facilities on their own. Changes to the students’ practices and attitudes in these schools have also been witnessed.

JEN is looking for a way to spread these practices in schools nationwide by spreading information about the changes in these schools. To do this, we suggested to the organizing group of the Queen Rania Award to establish a new award of “Outstanding school” to recognize and thank the efforts made by schools. We believe that this can help motivate those people who are making efforts. Also children in other schools can use their competitive spirit to bring changes to more schools.

Now that we have an opportunity to explain our ideas and reasons in detail to this organizing group we will continue talking with them for the improvement of schools nationwide.

The official website which organizes the Queen Rania Award can be found at the following link:

Ala’a Al-Kurdi, Program Assistant

[A teacher teaching students about hygiene]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[A girl cleaning the restroom at a school in Tafila]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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