#Jordan #education - The World Bank has approved a $3.5 million grant to plan a digital transformation project for Jordan’s public education system, including the groundwork for an EdTech and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Centre. The funding will finance an assessment of connectivity and digital infrastructure readiness across Jordan’s roughly 3,500 public schools, alongside piloting Chromebooks or similar devices. Depending on plans agreed, the project could lead to a nationwide digital rollout under the wider $400 million Jordan Pathways: Education, Skills and Administrative Reform programme.
SO WHAT? - This is a digital transformation planning and assessment project, and the World Bank has not yet committed financing for the implementation of the project itself. Therefore Jordan’s education ministry will need to prove technical feasibility and cost viability across thousands of schools with varying infrastructure before funds are approved for implementation. Meanwhile, the inclusion of an AI governance and data privacy framework alongside the technical assessment shows Jordan is trying to build-in regulatory guardrails at an early stage.
KEY POINTS:
The World Bank has approved a $3.5 million grant to prepare a digital transformation project for Jordan’s public education system. The project includes planning for an EdTech and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Centre, according to grant agreement documents.
The funding sits under the broader Jordan Pathways: Education, Skills and Administrative Reform programme (MASAR), which launched with $400 million in World Bank financing. The new project is intended to prepare the ground for additional financing.
The project will assess digital infrastructure readiness across all of Jordan’s roughly 3,500 public schools. This will cover electricity, internal wiring, device storage and charging facilities, and internet connectivity, while identifying gaps against digital-learning standards.
Different internet capacities, Wi-Fi networks and access points will be tested in a representative sample of schools of varying sizes. Pilots for connectivity and device solutions are also expected to be run across urban, semi-urban and rural school locations.
Plans include piloting Chromebooks or equivalent devices in selected schools to assess a national device programme, covering procurement, distribution, asset management, classroom integration, durability and teacher support needs.
The proposed EdTech and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Centre would partner with Jordanian universities and the private sector to develop AI-supported educational content and teacher professional development, plus research into digital education.
Preparations include developing Arabic-language digital content aligned with the national curriculum and supported by AI, alongside a digital education framework covering AI governance, data privacy, cybersecurity and learner protection.
A Project Implementation Unit will be established within Jordan’s Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, with the project also building capacity across the ministries of Education, Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, and Finance.
The documents explicitly state the $3.5 million covers only the preparation phase and does not represent a World Bank commitment to fund the subsequent digital transformation project across all 3,500 schools.
ZOOM OUT - The $3.5 million grant sits within Jordan's much larger MASAR programme, launched in February 2025 with $400 million in World Bank backing plus a further $7 million from the Global Concessional Financing Facility. MASAR ( meaning "Pathways" in Arabic) aims to improve foundational learning, strengthen technical and vocational training, and modernise how the Ministry of Education manages the sector. It aligns with Jordan's Economic Modernisation Vision, which treats school education as one of six pillars, alongside early childhood development, higher education, research and entrepreneurship. The digital transformation project will assess whether Jordan's schools have the infrastructure to support the technical and vocational upgrades MASAR is meant to deliver.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: Jordan media, World Bank
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