New amendments have been made to Jordan’s Tawjihi (High School) examinations.

The Minister of Education, Omar Al-Razzaz, and the Minister of Higher Education, Adel Tweissi, discussed the changes during a press conference on Sunday.

Al-Razzaz said that 70 percent of Tawjihi students either fail their exams or do not take them in the first place. He would like to change that.

“The problem with Tawjihi exams is their content, as it requires a lot of memorizing, minus the use of other learning skills,” Al-Razzaz pointed out.

Al-Razzaz said that today, people do not look at failing Tawjihi in the same way that they used to, that’s why the new changes have set the passing mark at 40 percent per subject, and at 50 percent for all subjects combined.

The new amendments also stipulate that students will from now on be required to take 7 instead of 10 exams, where the total score will be marked out of 1400 points.

Students who would like to enrol in medicine, engineering and pharmacy programs will have to earn more than 1120 Tawjihi points. Meanwhile, nursing, medical sciences, rehabilitation sciences and Sharia “Islamic studies” programs will require a passing mark of 910 points.

Meanwhile, Tweissi said that students will no longer be able to retake their exams during winter, but will still be able to re-sit them in the summer.