Rensimer, Lee; Epstein, Andrew; (2026) Sociopolitical crisis and non-state schooling in Jordan. In: Akar, Bassel and Zakharia, Zeena, (eds.) Routledge Handbook on Education in the Middle East and North Africa. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group: London, UK. (In press).

Text Rensimer_Rensimer and Epstein (2026) - final accepted (clean).pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff Download (465kB)

Abstract

Non-state schools, a broad category of educational providers funded, owned or managed by private, philanthropic, or intergovernmental organizations, are increasingly seen by the global donor community as potential partners in meeting national and international educational development goals. The growing presence of non-state schools in the Levant region, particularly Lebanon, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, acutely reflects this trend; every year, more parents choose to send their children to non-state schools in these countries. While these developments have arguably led to increased access to education at all levels, the heavier reliance on non-state schools, especially for-profit private providers, creates new challenges. The departure of higher performing pupils from the public sector weakens the system overall due to peer effects. Furthermore, non-state schools can exit the market when facing financial constraints like during economic or health crises, in turn causing mass inflows of pupils back into an already stressed state school system. This chapter examines the non-state school profile of the Jordanian education system before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, looking at the differential impacts of the pandemic on state and non-state school enrollment. Drawing on a suite of statistical data on educational provision and consumption in Jordan, it follows the sharp withdrawal of private providers in 2020 and increase in state school enrollments, illustrating the underlying risk and limited resilience of non-state educational provision.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVJSONXML

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Archive Staff Only

View Item