(MENAFN- Jordan Times) Schools and teachers should engage with their local communities and contribute to their development, a former winner of the Queen Rania Al Abdullah Award for Excellence in Education said on Tuesday.
Hana Abu Rumman, a biology teacher in the low-income District of Ain Al Basha in Balqa Governorate northwest of Amman, said she could not isolate herself from her society and was always thinking of ways to help improve the livelihoods of poor families in her area.
With this goal in mind, Abu Rumman said, she launched an initiative in cooperation with local organisations to train housewives in handicraft skills such as flower arranging, chocolate wrapping and sewing.
"We approached them in their homes to train them and helped them market their products at exhibitions," the teacher explained.
"The financial situation of women who joined the project improved and this had an impact on their families as well," Abu Rumman, who won the award in 2010 for initiating this project, said at a press gathering held on Tuesday to announce a new charter for the award.
Lubna Touqan, executive director of the Association of Queen Rania Al Abdullah Award for Excellence in Education, said the new charter stipulates enlisting former winners as ambassadors to present their success stories to other teachers and encourage them to excel.
Touqan also announced that a plan is in the works to include private-school and UNRWA teachers in the award. Currently, only teachers in public and military schools are eligible.
Launched in 2005 by Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania, the award aims to promote quality education by raising the standards, morale and pride of teachers.
Since the launch of the award, 170 teachers from across the Kingdom have been honoured. However, only 13 per cent of the winners were men, according to the association's communication manager, Lina Kurd.
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