The title of this post can be read in two different ways. Yes, that was intentional.
So what were the results?
118,031 students sat for the exam.
50,362 students passed, i.e. less than half.
Of course passing or failing the tawjihi exams also has an impact, which usually translated to fireworks, gunfire, and motorcades of cars where kids hang out of their windows and drive recklessly around town honking their horns.
283 cases of reckless driving in the form of celebratory car processions were reported in Amman. I’ll make the safe bet and assume there were a lot more.
Four people were injured due to gunfire from the “festivities”.
On the upside: only One tawjihi related suicide attempt has been reported.
It is remarkable that the same educational system that can be so difficult that less than half of those sitting for it will fail, a system so supposedly difficult that it produces suicide attempts, can also produce a group of graduates who are bright enough to pass, yet, their first instinct is to drive around town, hanging out of cars haphazardly at ridiculous speeds, honking their horns for hours, and essentially breaking about 5 different traffic laws simultaneously. A group of people whose first instinct is to take out their AK-47s and shoot rounds of bullets in to the air.
And again, these are the people who actually passed the exams.
That says something.
Maybe I’m too young to say it, but: I also blame the parents.
Tawjihi is another failure of the system at large, never mind the pointlessness of the whole exam which produces students who still don’t know basic general knowledge information, there is clearly a growing threat of the festive ways.
Parents, older family members and friends who willingly choose to drive cars so fast, ignore any sort of respect to the law or people are to blame in addition to the students of course who-like you noted- with their first encounter are being reckless.
It is all about ignorance; this proves that education is not realizing what it supposed to, soon these students will make terrible choices in violent episodes at universities and oh yeah they will have the perfect excuse like always; “they’re young, it’s OK, other people are doing it, it happens once….etc.”
Yasmine, I don’t think that willful disobedience is comparable to ignorance. Ignorance implies lack of knowledge. These young people know the law, and feel the law does not apply to them. I agree that education is not fulfilling a primary purpose: to create responsible citizens. It seems to promote a coddled, prolonged adolescence.
Ya lateef
And I do blame the parents.
I think of ignorance on a higher level though; that of parents
-who still-cannot realize the impact of their tolerance of such reckless acts, in addition to that of students who might have scored 90s but do not know how to respect the law and others properly;you can say they enter a sort of “I am legend” state! what a bunch of untouchables. Moreover, the irresponsibility of people who might know the number of people killed in car accidents and still go out and do the same festive rituals.
Hopefully it will be different next year.
That seems excellent nonetheless i am just still not so certain that I prefer it. Anyway will look even more into it and decide for myself! 🙂