Sadeen, a fifth-grade student, rushed out of her school building encouraged by teachers to race around the neighborhood as part of the physical exercise class organized for the students. 

The girl recounts her memories at Al-Qasimia Basic Mixed School in Madaba's Dhiban District, before she changed her school last year, "Next to the school, there was a street, and we raced around the school  building" says Sadeen.

"Sports Class" on the Street

Abdullah al-Qaisi, Sadeen's father, recalls the danger his daughter was exposed to when she participated in that race as a student stampede posed a threat to his daughter’s safety when she fell in the street.

Al-Qaisi confirms that Al-Qasimia School lacked a suitable playground.Next to the school’s modest rented building converted into a school for many years, there is a paved yard that used to be a small car park, not exceeding eight square meters and constituted the school’s only outdoor facility.

Al-Qaisi explains that the school building has no outer walls or a gate: "The physical exercise class would be held in the main street."

External toilets have been attached to the exterior of the building with an unsecured cesspit tank next to it, he says.

 Al-Qasimia Basic Mixed School has 54 students in grades one to six, according to the Jordanian Ministry of Education.

The director of education of the Dhiban District, Khawla Al-Badayneh, explains that one of the basics of establishing schools is to provide facilities and playgrounds that can accommodate and cater to the students, providing adequate and safe classrooms and playgrounds that are separate from the external environment, she says.

Al-Badayneh pointed out that safe playgrounds should allow for two square meters per student and Dhiban lacks proper and safety compliant playgrounds, she said.

She says, "Al-Qasimia School is one of the less fortunate schools as it needs playgrounds, toilets and outer walls." She also noted the absence of a safe building nearby that could be rented to serve students in the area.

According to her, the ministry is in the process of putting the necessary studies to see the feasibility of erecting a new building with eight to 10 classrooms on a ministry-owned land. The project's execution is expected in 2023-2024. Also the residents of Al-Qasimia had submitted a request to the Ministry of Education to establish a six-dunum primary school owned by the ministry next to the current school’s old building.

The School's Playground an Asphalted Street

The situation of Al-Mujib Basic School for Girls is not much different from that of Al-Qasimia School. The school is located in the Dhiban District within a compound belonging to the Jordan Valley Authority. The school has 56 students from grades one to 10.

Al-Mujib Basic School for Girls has an outdoor space for students which is a street that vehicles and water tankers use, in order to access the Authority's buildings.

Other schools in the governorate look better off than those two, but not all of them have adequate outdoor space for students to play and exercise.

Madaba Governorate has 80 primary schools, 45 percent of which are located in the Dhiban District. About a quarter of the governorate's students are enrolled in the district, while the rest study in the Madaba Qasabah District.

Schools affiliated with the Ministry of Education make up about 60 percent of the governorate's schools, compared to about 39 percent in the capital, according to the Ministry of Education statistics for 2020-2021.

Ignored Standards

The Regulation for the Establishment and Licensing of Private and Foreign Educational Institutions No. 130 of 2015 and its amendments, requires the allocation of at least one square meter per student in the classroom and at least two square meters per students in the playground; that is, a total of up to three square meters per student in a school building.

A Google Maps analysis of a large sample of Madaba schools shows that the Ministry of Education has not complied with these standards.  

The analysis covered about 98 percent of public primary schools in Madaba Governorate.

This analysis was based on data collected via Google Earth, and the reporter’s field visits to almost one-third of the governorate's primary schools.

The analysis found that more than 4,000 students were deprived of sufficient space for playgrounds, in accordance with the Ministry of Education's standards.

The director of the International Buildings and Projects Department, Ibrahim Al-Samam'a, acknowledges that the student's share of playgrounds was 1.1-1.4 square meters when the schools were constructed.

Al-Samam'a says that a student's share in school buildings may not exceed 1.4 square meters, and this may drop below one square meter per student in other buildings.

Accordingly, the construction code of school buildings, which was approved by the Jordanian Council of Ministers earlier this year, must be adhered to, and must in the future take into account many criteria, including the basis for choosing the plot of land, external works, playgrounds, healthcare units and gates.

He says that the current standards require the availability of a total of four square meters per student.

Replacing rented school buildings with ministry-owned ones is a major challenge from Samam'a's point of view, in light of what he describes as the increase in demands for public schools as parents abandon private education due to changes in their economic circumstances that obliges the ministry to rent buildings to accommodate the increasing number of students.

He points out that the number of new school buildings that the Ministry of Education needs to build annually has increased from 60 to 100 schools, as its affiliated schools have seen the enrolment of about a quarter of a million new students since 2020.

Rented buildings do not have adequate standards compared to the ones owned by the state, according to the Ministry of Education. Its “strategic plan 2018-2022” states that "rented school buildings do not meet the approved standards for schools as set by schools owned by the Ministry of Education."

However, analysis of the data shows that most students deprived of sufficient play space (less than two square meters per student) attend schools owned by the ministry.

The lack of suitable playgrounds was not limited to the lack of space per student; some  schools have simply dirt or gravel playgrounds, while others lack outer walls from all sides, according to field visits conducted by the reporter.

Sadeen's father, a retired civil servant, says he faced the same hardships when he studied at Al-Qasimia Basic School in the past, expressing his dismay that students continue to suffer from having to study in unsuitable buildings. Al-Qaisi's old school he claimed used to occupy a different building in the past.

Al-Qaisi has always dreamt of a better school for his children, but he did not expect that it would be without a playground, a gate or outer walls.