JORDAN Dropout Students 2012

My father’s death in 2010 in Tyre, southern Lebanon, left my mother alone, as we, her three daughters, had all moved out. Being a Jordanian citizen, she decided to move back to Amman, where her sister lives. My recurrent visits to check on her, in the working-class neighbourhood she took residence in, revealed a particular category of the female population.

 They call them “home-bound” students.

 As I was looking it up, a conversation with an official from the Ministry of Education revealed that despite the relatively high rate of elementary school enrolment in Jordan, a considerable number of girls drop out in secondary school. They do so for various reasons, but mainly due to the low economic status of their parents. The official couldn’t provide an exact number of those who interrupted or ended their schooling, but I couldn’t stop wondering what happens to these girls.

Seeking an answer to this question led me to the suburbs of Amman, where the Social Support Centre run by Nihaya Dabdub provides a two-year programme for dropout girls eager to resume their education. The course gives the girls the chance, and the choice, of either continuing high school education or transferring to a technical school. Most choose the latter.

 I asked the students “What would be your dream when you finish the programme?