Jordan Education Reform Support Program-for-Results Additional Financing

About the project

Tangible progress has been made in expanding access to education in Jordan over the past four decades, but challenges remain both in the areas of access and quality of education. Access challenges are particularly severe for Syrian refugee children in Jordan. Expanding access to quality KG2 poses a formidable challenge, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, including Syrian refugees.

The Additional Financing (AF) is providing timely technical and financial support to cope with the medium-term challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Education sector financing will be a key challenge in times of increased pressure on the public budget, reductions in disposable incomes of families, and pressure on international financing as donor countries themselves have often been severely affected by the pandemic. The AF provides crucial support for investment in the human capital of the generation that will have to pay for the debts that countries are incurring to cope with the crisis today. The AF will further support MOE in leveraging investments in distance learning as a launching pad for more effective and inclusive education services. This AF builds on previous financing for the Jordan Education Reform Program-for-Results and is aligned with the larger landscape of support by development partners to the Jordanian education sector.

Project Development Objective (PDO)

To expand access to early childhood education, and to improve student assessment and teaching and learning conditions for Jordanian children and Syrian refugee children.

Project Implementation Status

The Program is on track to meet its objective of expanding access to early childhood education and improving student assessment and teaching and learning conditions for Jordanian children and Syrian refugee children. Three of the four PDO indicators have been achieved, including: 135,187 Jordanian children and Syrian refugees enrolled in KG2 (Target: 120,000); over 11,000 teachers evaluated against the National Teacher Professional Standards meeting the minimum performance standards (Target: 6,400); and an adopted regulation separating the dual purpose of the Tawjihi. The number of Syrian refugees benefitting from the program interventions has been progressing behind its yearly targets as it has been highly impacted by drop-out effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing return of Syrian refugees to their home country.
The Program underwent a restructuring, which was approved on April 4, 2025, and the loan amendment was countersigned on May 30, 2025. The restructuring was approved by the co-financier, the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) Steering Committee, on March 13, 2025. The restructuring aims to enhance the Program’s impact by aligning Disbursement Linked Results (DLRs) with current Government priorities, reallocating funds to key high impact results, and extending the closing date by 12 months to May 31, 2026. This extension aligns the Program with the Education Sector Plan (ESP) and ensures the completion and verification of critical ongoing reforms delayed by COVID-19. The restructuring simplifies implementation while building on the Program’s achievements, focusing on priority reforms for maximum impact, such as school maintenance, development of an EdTech AI hub, and the consolidation of in-service teacher training programs.
Since the last progress report, the following key results have been achieved:

• 147 additional public KG2 classrooms have been constructed (as extensions to existing schools) and are operational (target: 280).
• MOE completed the implementation of the first round of the Quality Assurance System (QAS) across 499 public and private KGs (961 classrooms), which showed that around 15% of KG classrooms have areas for improvement – predominantly under private education supervision-, highlighting the need for ongoing assessment and support to enhance early learning.
• 11,861 teachers have been evaluated against the new National Teacher Professional Standards (NTPS) and meet the minimum performance standards.
• The MOE has approved the National Student Assessment Framework.

Disbursements have reached US$248.8 million, representing 83 percent of the total operation amount of US$300 million, including US$116.8 million in advances, out of which US$84 million are pending for advance recovery. The team expects the upcoming disbursement request for US$48.6 million will be processed fully for advance recovery. The remaining US$35.6 million are expected to be recovered before the loan closing date.

Relevant Documents:

• Project Appraisal Document (PAD)
• World Bank Project Information Page