Home Educational insightsKing’s Academy’s ‘Jordan Model Parliament’ 

King’s Academy’s ‘Jordan Model Parliament’ 

Posted: 31 July 2018

Jordan Model Parliament 

The ‘Jordan Model Parliament’ is a mock parliamentary conference with participation from schools nationwide. The annual event offers students the opportunity to research and debate national and global issues. As Shaden Al Salman explains, students become more informed citizens, grow in confidence through learning to voice their opinions, and build an array of skills including leadership, teamwork and project management.

Author and position: Shaden Al Salman, Head of Modern Languages and Head of the Co-Curricular Programme 

School: King’s Academy is a co-educational boarding school in Jordan serving 670 pupils from grades 7-12. The multi-cultural school is home to over 50 nationalities and is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. 

Introduction  

The Jordan Model Parliament invites students from across the country to engage in parliamentary-style debates in their own language, on issues pertinent to the nation.  

The Parliament’s mission, which mirrors that of His Majesty King Abdullah II, is to empower young leaders to drive change within and beyond their communities, to think for themselves, and to discover that the differences between us enrich our experiences and broaden our horizons.   

Over the past four years, the Jordan Model Parliament has evolved from a small workshop to the biggest co-curricular activity on campus and one of the most eagerly anticipated interscholastic events nationwide.  

Activity 

Participation 

Students from private and public schools across the country are invited to participate in the three-day event. The students are accompanied by adult delegates. 

Preparation 

Formal training takes place in the lead-up to the parliamentary conference over a weekend with the aim of preparing the students to talk around the issues being discussed. This ensures all the students participating understand the background to the parliament and its philosophy, so that they engage in the opportunity with a shared vision of what we are trying to achieve. The training sessions also help students understand the tools and techniques they need to employ to effectively engage in the debates: the principles of running a debate, respecting alternative views, taking your turn to speak, and not interfering when others share their views.  

The students are then asked to write a document on the issue they are planning to discuss, in order that they can prepare their thoughts and consider what research they need to undertake to come armed to the debate with the information at hand. 

Student participants in our school are able to do their research and gather information during their allocated co-curricular time or after school. We also help build their learnings in other ways, for example, through expert speakers and by taking them to events, such as live political campaigns. 

Structure 

In lieu of countries, students represent the 12 governorates in Jordan. There are also sub-groups which mirror the MUN conference staples: the Arab League, Security Council, Crisis Committee, the General Assembly, World Bank and Ministers Cabinet forums. 

Debating topics 

Students debate subjects across a broad range of areas which they choose themselves, based on issues they have seen in the news, or situations they recognise personally. We provide guidance where necessary, for example, to help them make an issue more specific, or to recommend an issue that they might wish to consider.  

The areas of scope include Human Rights, the Environment, Economics, Law, National Security, Foreign Policy and Education.  Some of the hard-hitting debates that have taken place in previous years have touched on tribal conflicts, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, freedom of the press, women’s rights, the Syrian crisis and refugee rights, the Arab Spring, the threat of ISIS, the Tawjihi system and solar energy in Jordan. 

What is most satisfying is when the topics discussed converge with a real political debate in the country. Last year, the students debated Act 308: this had allowed rapists to escape prosecution if they married their victim for at least five years. Allowing the students to debate this at the same time as their representatives in the real Jordananian parliament made this issue acutely real for the pupils. In the event, our government did abolish this Act and the students, having discussed the issue at length, and the associated subject of women’s rights in our country, could understand the significance and impact of this important decision. 

The format of the parliamentary conference 

The parliament starts at the end of the week and runs across the weekend with the general format as follows: 

Planning  

Testing the concept and growing in scale 

The concept of the Jordan Model Parliament was first tested in 2013 where it ran as a small forum (just 19 students) on the sidelines of an existing Model United Nations (MUN) conference at our school. For this first trial, we invited participation from other international and private schools in the country as we thought it would be easier for them to come on board with the format, having scope in the curriculum to support the children and prepare them for the event. 

The parliamentary event proved so popular that two years later (2015), a standalone conference was organized with 100 students taking part, this time from a broader range of schools: 15 public and private schools. We encouraged every private school to link-up with a public school in their area to help prepare the school and students for their participation.  

As we grew in confidence, and were able to reach more schools across the nation, student numbers increased even further, as did the volume of interactive forums. The second JMP conference took place in 2016, this time with around 300 participants including delegates from 12 public and eight private schools across the kingdom. 

The Jordan Model Parliament of 2017 was the largest conference yet. The Secretariat doubled in number to cope with the workload, and over 500 students representing 80 schools across the country converged on the campus to participate in 19 forums, including new ones on Technology and Communications, Arts and Culture and the Court of Justice. 

Extending the opportunity to younger audiences 

With the opening of the Middle School at King’s in 2016, the JMP Secretariat proposed extending the parliament concept to the Middle School. Soon afterward, some 85 students from Jordanian public and private schools joined forces at the first Jordan Model Parliament (JMP) Middle School Conference. Designed for a younger audience, the Middle School conference incorporated more interactive activities and fewer debate and writing sessions, instead focusing on teaching skills needed for the conference.  

Other adaptations 

In order to give all students an equal opportunity to take part in JMP, this year an English-language forum was introduced that enabled non-Arabic speakers to get a better understanding of Jordanian society and key local issues.  

In addition to our student training, we also decided this year to hold training sessions for participating teachers too, to enable them to reach out to and prepare more students. Four sessions for 80 schools took place, helping educate students around Jordan about the issues their country faces, in addition to ensuring all delegates are on an equal footing when they take part.  

Establishing the organisational team 

The Jordan Model Parliament is organised by a student team which consists of:  

The process for allocating the roles is rigorous: students apply by form and are then interviewed, usually by the previous team’s volunteers, with staff present to ensure objectivity. 

Challenges 

Procedure and process – In order to communicate with the public schools in our country, we were required to gain approval from the Ministry of Education. Although we initially struggled to get the Minister at the time to engage with our plan when the Minister changed, he immediately saw the benefit of the project, and warmly encouraged us to engage with the public school system with his enthusiastic backing. 

School engagement – A further consideration for us was how to best get support from the public schools we hoped would participate. There was no incentive for adult chaperones to get involved – it meant time out of their weekend – and we found that as a result, the chaperones tended to work in shifts over this period: there was no consistency of staff. That’s why we developed an adult training programme to present some additional value to the chaperones attending. 

Costs – One further challenge we faced was ensuring that cost would not be a barrier for our public school participants. We funded the schools’ transport to our school and ensured they were accommodated at our school, the funds from which are deducted from the school co-curricular budget.  

Impact 

The Parliament inspires Jordanian students to learn more about their country, lifting the lid on the real experiences of citizens – their aspirations, their challenges, and how the modern world will impact their future. As the debates are conducted primarily in Arabic, they provide an opportunity for the students to express themselves in their own language, in an otherwise English-speaking school. 

The event also benefits international students as by researching and debating the issues involved, they gain a deeper insight into their adopted culture. They also have the opportunity to be part of something that is stimulating change in Jordanian society and pick up some Arabic words and phrases in the process. Although not proficient enough in Arabic to participate fully as delegates, they are involved through some additional English debating sessions, and also as organizers, photographers and volunteers. 

The impact on the pupils has been considerable. They have opportunities to exercise their leadership and management skills, show their creativity and sensitivity when tackling problems, and gain an outlook on national and global issues helping them become more informed citizens in the future.  

(For student perspectives on the Jordan Model Parliament, read our student testimonials.) 

The Parliament format continues to go from strength-to-strength. It is officially the largest co-curricular on campus, and is expected to draw involvement from 700 students across the country this coming year. The numbers have become so large, in fact, that the parliament will now run across two events. 

Our model parliament has been profiled in the news and social media, thanks to the great efforts of our students in external affairs.  

We have been overjoyed to receive invitations from universities and individuals who want to be part of our parliament exercise; in fact, there is a university that is looking to transpose the concept to their own campus, to raise the level of active citizenship among their own student body. And our own Secretary General from last year is now studying in the US and we have heard that he has started a similar parliamentary initiative on his campus, helping students better understand our region. 

The involvement of Syrian refuges through our local church has also added another very powerful dimension to the debates and giving this often overlooked community a voice. 

The Future

We are eager to make the parliament as inclusive as possible so this year we will be opening up opportunities to students with physical disabilities. Our hope is that in the future, we can invite many more students, of all backgrounds, and from many other nations. 

Advice 

 

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