A draft unified human rights educational curricula for Jordanian universities is now ready after over a year's work by experts and academics from all over the Kingdom, education specialists said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the closing of the conference "Strengthening Human Rights Mechanisms in Jordan: Universities towards Preparing Educational Curricula for Human Rights", Government Coordinator for Human Rights Basil Tarawneh said that this is an important step in Jordan’s history towards creating a real Jordanian curriculum on human rights for students and the next generation.

The project is held in collaboration between the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and Change Academy.

Kamal Mashreqi, the head of Change Academy, said the necessity to transform human rights concepts into attitudes such as understanding others and respecting diversity has led to the initiative to create new unified curricula with new teaching strategies.

“A weak turnout for studying human rights was observed [at universities] due to the traditional teaching methods employed,” Mashreqi noted.

Mohammad Nsour, the director of the human rights department at the Ministry of Justice, noted that the new curricula will focus on national, regional and international security procedures, and educate students on the basic freedoms and rights.

Nsour said theoretical teaching might bore students; therefore, teaching using case studies and role play will engage students more, as it has been proven as an effective mechanism, in addition to discussions, presentations and visual aids.