"Jordan has an active and vibrant children’s book publishing sector, enhanced by the many international organizations that are working in education and health to create children’s reading materials. Reports indicate that certain types of books are widely available in Jordanian schools: 99.3% of ... Jordanian students have textbooks, and 67.6% of classrooms have additional reading materials. Although the quantity of books in many classrooms meets international norms, the mix of book types, including decodable and leveled readers for the youngest grades, is often inadequate for teaching beginning students to read. This, combined with some 30%−35% of classrooms functioning only with textbooks, creates inequities that improvements to book supply chains can address. The book issue is part of a larger set of challenges that limit literacy. Until recently, teachers have not been trained in early-grade reading techniques that use explicit phonics instruction. Because of this historical lack of an explicit phonics approach, leveled and decodable readers are still an unfamiliar concept in Jordan, and ERMs are not included in the MoE’s textbook procurement system. Because the MoE doesn't procure these kinds of books, they aren't produced en masse, and because they're not produced en masse, they're not procured, which leads to a vicious cycle and a broken chain of supply and demand. Teaching also has not taken into account the important role of reading aloud to children. This is critical, given the situation of diglossia in Jordan, in which students speak a dialect of Arabic at home but learn to read Modern Standard Arabic when they start school. Exposure to oral Modern Standard Arabic, which could be provided through reading aloud to children, has been proven to lift literacy rates among Arabic speakers. Books are too expensive for many low-income families, and reading for pleasure is not common, which leads to reduced demand for books at home. This means that a child’s only exposure to print is during school hours, which are too short a window of time in which to acquire reading skills. The traditional definition of literacy has rested on recitation of Qur’anic texts; only recently has the emphasis shifted toward a definition based on deriving meaning from text. In addition, the content of children’s books can be poor, with serious spelling and grammatical mistakes that reduce public perception of the quality of these books, and may reduce demand. Libraries, which could fill the gap left by lack of books at home, are not very attractive; while libraries in private schools tend to have books and learning resources for all ages, most libraries are stocked with books that either do not interest or address the needs of students or that have quickly eteriorated. Less educated parents tend to give all importance to the textbook and do not encourage their children to borrow and read books for general reading pleasure." (Executive summary, pages 2-3) more

"Radio is the most popular source of information with 98% saying it their source of information. 71% claim that radio is the most important source of information to them and 66% claim that radio is the most reliable source of information. Church is also a strong source of information with 64% claimi ... ng it as their source of information. Newspaper/Magazines followed with a 52% claiming it as a source of information. Other sources of information were word of mouth with 45%, followed by mobile phones with 39%, television with 37% and internet with 11%. The rest had small numbers – please refer to the table. Different sources are used with different degrees of frequencies. Radio (86%) has the highest everyday listenership, followed by mobile phones (60%) and word of mouth (58%). Miraya FM has 54%, followed by Spirit FM with 9%, Liberty with 8%, Sudan Radio Service with 7%, when we pick top 4 radio stations when it we look at top of mind awareness." (Executive summary, page 6) more