Tawjihi or Al-Tawjihi is the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination in Jordan. It is the last stage of school education. To sit for the exam, students are required to finish 2 years of pre-school education, 10 years of basic education, and 2 years of secondary academic or vocational education. Subjects in the exam include Arabic, English, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geology, Civil Studies and Islamic studies. Only those who pass the exam with a good mark may apply to proceed to university. For example, to be accepted to study medicine you must take the scientific stream in the last 2 years of the secondary education and get a mark not less than 85 degree out of 100 in Tawjihi exam.
Jordanian Tawjihi Equivalency
Foreign secondary education programs such as GCE/IGCSE/GCSE, SATs, and International Baccalaureate require to have Tawjihi-equivalency, so that the student could later work in Jordan or proceed to a higher education in Jordan. Upon graduation, the ministry of Higher Education transforms the Grades/Marks of these foreign educational programs, into the same marks used in grading Tawjihi students. However, even after the equivalency transformation, non-Tawjihi graduates are not allowed to compete with Tawjihi graduates for public university places. For non-Tawjihi graduates, there is a set quota of 5% of places. Most graduates of foreign programs end up paying international fees to get a place in their desired faculty. Regarding the system used to transform exam results of foreign education programs into the Tawjihi scale, which is a percentage out of 100, some see the system is fair and in fact over lenient with non-Tawjihi graduates, while others see it as unfair. Below is a summary of the requirements of the Ministry of education to receive an equivalency to the Jordanian Tawjihi.
GCE/IGCSE/GCSE equivalency
General conditions:
You should provide the Ministry with a proof that you have completed 12 years of schooling.
You must pass six O-levels and or IGCSE/GCSE subjects and two A-level subjects. Passing grades are as follows:
*O-level/IGCSE/GCSE : A, B, C and D.
*A-level/AS : A, B,C,D, and E
For Arab students one of the eight subjects should be Arabic language at either the O or A level. The following Arabic subjects are accepted for the equivalency:
*Modern Arabic.
*Classical Arabic.
*First Language Arabic.
*Arabic 9164.
In order to gain a Science Stream Tawjihi equivalency the following is needed
*six subjects at the IGCSE or "O" level exams including:
Co-ordinated Science: for Tawjihi equivalency purposes the Ministry of Education has agreed to equate the Co-ordinated Science as two subjects.
AS levels: The Ministry of Education has agreed that two AS subjects are equivalent to one A level for Tawjihi Equivalency purposes. To receive an equivalency for a science subject the two AS subjects should be science subjects. If one AS is a science subject and the other is a literary subject then it equals one A level towards the literary stream. The student should check with the university they are applying to whether they require a full A level or not.
The Ministry of Education will consider the same subject in two levels as two separate subjects.
The candidate may re-sit the exam as many times as he/she needs before obtaining the equivalency. If the student wants to re-sit a subject after obtaining the equivalency in order to improve his/her grade point average then the student has to re-sit all eight subjects.
The final percentage of a score is calculated as follows: A* = 98 C = 75 A = 95 D = 65 B = 85 E = 55 8 subject percentages are added up and then the total is divided by 8.
International Baccalaureate Equivalency
You should provide the Ministry with a proof that you have completed 12 years of schooling.
You should pass in 6 subjects. Passing grades are as follows:
*Standard Level Subjects: 3-7
*Higher Level Subjects: 4-7
Arab students do not have a special requirement.
In order to gain a Science Stream Tawjihi equivalency the following is needed:
*At least 2 of these subjects should be at Higher Level
In order to gain a Literary Stream Tawjihi equivalency the following is needed:
*2 Language subjects in either Group 1 or Group 2
*2 Subject in either Group 3 or Group 6
*1 Subjects from Group 4
*1 Subject from Group 5
*At least 2 of these subjects should be at Higher Level
For The international baccalaureate the equivalency goes as follows: Each subject is calculated individually then they are summed up and divided by 6, then a 0.3% is added for each point scored from the diploma program
A 7 is awarded a 98%,
A 6 is awarded a 90%,
A 5 is awarded an 80%,
A 4 is awarded a 70%,
A 3 is awarded a 60%
A 2 is awarded a 50%,
An example of equivalency for a science stream student: He obtained a score of 35. A 7 in Chemistry HL, a 6 in Physics SL, a 4 in ITGS SL, a 5 in Mathematics SL, a 5 in Arabic A1 SL, a 6 in English B SL and 2 marks from ToK and EE. Here is the calculation:
