Hala is not the only student affected by accidents at public schools. Accidents with falling gates have been a recurrent issue at Ministry of Education schools in various Jordanian governorates.
Hisham Al-Khalayleh says that in October 2021, his son Majid was also involved in a similar accident when his school gate in the Zarqa governorate fell on him, leaving him with fractures and bruises in various parts of his body.

In 2016, a student lost his life after the iron gate of his public school crushed him, leaving him with injuries to the head that caused his death.

The Irbid Court of Appeal examined the case of the deceased student and issued a decision last June affirming the Ministry of Education’s responsibility and ordering damage compensation for his next of kin, according to the provisions of Article (1/288) of the Civil Code.

The court went on to order the Ministry of Education and the school principal to compensate the next of kin, paying around 75,000 Jordanian Dinars ($105000), because of the harm they caused.

In 2019, another student suffered fractures to his skull and vertebrae when a two-meter high school gate fell on him at a public school in Tafilah governorate.

The Court of Appeal examined the case for compensation paid to the student’s family and concluded that the Ministry of Education had failed to service the iron gate which was in such a poor state of repair that it required special attention to avoid personal injury to students and teachers.

What does the budget show?

An analysis of the budget of the Jordanian Ministry of Education reveals that its current expenditures increased between 2010 and 2021 by 75% but the share dedicated to maintenance declined by about 36%.

Current expenditures cover maintenance including furniture, school vehicles and other machinery and their supplies. Capital expenditures mainly cover the maintenance and repair carried out on school buildings.

The analysis also shows spending on maintenance of furniture and machinery in various education programs decreased by 37% during the same period.

The data analysis included all levels of school education; from kindergarten to secondary school, as well as special education, social and sports activities.

The basic level or primary school seems to have been affected the most by the reduction in allocations for maintenance of furniture and machinery, as these allocations have decreased by half since 2010.

Primary education levels constitute the bulk of the sections in public schools, followed by the secondary levels.

The ministry’s budget reports show that maintenance and repairs of school buildings are paid for through capital expenditures, and not through current expenditures.

Spending on the maintenance and repairs of buildings from capital expenditures increased in the last three years after a decline for four consecutive years.

Maintenance and safe environments

Hani Jahshan, an expert on prevention of violence against children, explains that it is not permissible for students and teachers to utilise school premises if the safety of the infrastructure is in doubt. The key function of school principals and directors of education is to ensure that safety procedures are followed. He says, “There are allocations for such matters, and this must be done before the start of the school year.” Jahshan adds, “Tracing the accidents and injuries that occurred in previous years will show that the infrastructure is bad, and that there is no periodic maintenance of these facilities, especially for the external school gates.”

Who is at fault?

Ibrahim Samamaa, head of the Department for Building Management and International Projects at the Ministry of Education says, “The Maintenance Directorate in the Ministry of Education is responsible for maintaining schools.” This directorate is affiliated with the Department for Building Management and International Projects, which also includes the directorate of Engineering Affairs and the directorate of Property and Investment.

According to Samamaa, teams conduct full surveys of school buildings to evaluate their safety before the start of every school year. These teams also verify that the gates are safe and that they are not at risk of falling, as well as surveying the fences of schools for any cracks.

He highlighted that the Ministry also has departments for following up on maintenance in forty-two directorates distributed over various regions.

Lack of planning

An analysis of the budget of the Ministry of Education reveals an increase in spending on building maintenance and repairs in the last three years compared to the period between 2015 and 2018. Despite this, a huge discrepancy exists in the allocations for maintenance of buildings and furniture across various education programs since 2010.

Mohammad Abu Ghazleh, former director of the Educational Planning and Research Department, acknowledges the lack of a sustainable maintenance system, which leads to problems due to several factors, the most important of which is the age or inadequacy of buildings.

Abu Ghazleh says that most of these problems emerge in winter months, and they put at risk the lives and wellbeing of students as they turn schools into unsafe environments for learning.

Abu Ghazleh points out that rented school buildings also face maintenance-related challenges. In the case of rented schools, 90% of the rent is paid to the landlord after the building is occupied, which means the landlord is secure and may not respond after he has collected the sum owed to him. Moreover, the remaining 10% may not cover the required maintenance needed.

The tenant, the state in this case, has the right to vacate the building at any time without notifying the landlord according to the annual contracts. Abu Ghazleh adds that the tenant can also make any modifications, repairs or additions to the rented property, according to an agreement concluded with the landlord to compensate him financially if the modification is not within the terms of the contract.

In the case of government-owned schools, Abu Ghazleh explains that the problem lies in the absence of any kind of maintenance planning or appropriate follow-up and monitoring especially for older state-owned buildings.

Abu Ghazleh pointed out that each directorate is allocated 300,000 Jordanian Dinars ($422000) or more annually. In his opinion, this amount did not reduce the emergence of problems that endanger the lives of students. Several factors contribute to the ongoing problem, including the lack of maintenance follow-up, administrative and bureaucratic procedures that impede the execution of maintenance in a timely and appropriate manner, the lack of financial resources and the poor administrative skills of some managers who may fear making financial errors as a result of vague financial procedures.