King Abdullah II Fund for Development and the Ministry of Education signed a cooperation agreement to implement "The New Voters" project aiming to enhance election awareness and political participation among public school students to properly introduce them into the democratic culture.
The project will be implemented in collaboration with Politics and Society Institute, to support and spread out the outputs of the Royal Committee to Modernize the Political Systems, and will provide a democratic-nurturing educational program in order to increase “election awareness” amongst new voters, granting them the chance to a practical experience by participating in both, applied and virtual election simulations through utilizing applied, realistic, and virtual practices that are co-designed by the students in the selected schools".
The project came to contribute in strengthening national efforts to encourage political participation among people from different ages, to bolster participation in political and civic life, grant them the opportunity to deliver their voice to the relevant decision-makers, and encourage them to believe in their abilities as positive agents of change in their communities
"since the beginning of this year, a series of projects about awareness and education have been launched by KAFD encouraging young people to engage in the political life to enhance the political reform process", AL-Hassan stated.
The project targets students from 10th and 11th grades from public schools within three governorates: Irbid, Madaba and Quwayrah.
The executive director of Politics and Society Institute, Rasha Fatyan, confirmed that the project raises awareness towards election as one of the most important tools for democratic practice, educates the participants about: general work & citizenship, parliament and its connection to Public Affairs of Jordan, strengthens their skills in dialogue, communication, persuasion, gaining support, the basics of electoral campaigns, and owning the best tools for reading electoral data and programs, as well as enabling capabilities of the targeted counselors and teachers of same schools to motivate students launching sustainable political initiatives.
(80) Students from both genders will be encouraged and trained to organize electoral campaign for virtual parliament through a simulation from the students with an electoral program focusing on priority issues and expanding stakeholders in the student and family community and the town to reach qualified young leaders, candidates and new voters as a prior stage to parliamentary programmatic work based on lists.