On 11 October, various media outlets covered the news of completing the process of "merging schools" in many governorates under different headlines, such as: Closing 48 Classes, Merging 668 Classes, and Providing 1,065 Teachers. However, none of the media outlets explained if this means that the students whose schools were closed have indeed attended the new schools or not.

What happened since the merger decision was announced in early August is that the media have published many reports about protests by parents and students and that many of them refused to go to the new schools. The news reports covered several governorates in the south and north, including the following:

Mafraq: Students at Dayr al-Kahf Refrain From Attending Classes in Protest Against Merger
Schoolchildren at Dayr al-Kahf District Continue To Refuse To Attend Classes for Fourth Week
In Protest Against Merger Decision: Education Director of Southern Bedouin Region Assaulted
Schoolchildren in Southern Bedouin Region Continue Strike in Protest Against School Mergers
Protests Sweeping Kingdom Rejecting Decision on School Mergers
Parents Prevent Children From Going to Schools in Protest Against Merger Decision

The media also continued to publish news related to the activities of the Ministry of Education while defending its decision. They further published opinions of experts, who defended the decision and praised its outcome.

By way of verification, the Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor (AKEED) contacted five newspaper correspondents who covered the news from different governorates, but none of them could provide a clear answer about the extent of the actual application of the merger decision, specifically answering the basic question whether students had attended schools or not.

In this report about media performance, what we want to note has specifically to do with the view of the journalist, in this case, of the expression "the merger decision is over" or "the question of merger is over." In all cases, journalists answered that the Ministry had informed them that the problem was solved. However, upon asking them, some of them answered that, knowing parents and their positions, they believe that they would not send their children, especially female children, to the new schools. Yet, as journalists, they believed that "the problem is over."

Newspaper correspondents think that their mission is confined to publishing the papers and statements that they receive or the information they obtain via telephone from relevant parties.

MP Bassam al-Btoush, chairman of the parliamentary Education Committee who had several interventions in published material about the merger, by virtue of his position, said in a call with AKEED that the media did a very poor job of writing about the problem of school mergers. No journalist went to the field, did interviews, had a firsthand look, or observed the conduct of students after the merger decision. Al-Btoush added that he knows that there are cases of dropout due to not going to the new schools. He explained that many continue to suffer because of transportation, especially since the Ministry has not yet implemented its decisions on transporting students to the new schools.

The reports published on an important issue that has to do with the fate of hundreds of students in areas that are in dire need of care and attention do not meet the standards of professional media reporting, which is worthy of this description. This requires that journalists go beyond statements via telephone or written statements that newspaper offices in the governorates receive. Journalists are responsible for firsthand examination. Besides, reporting the viewpoint of the first main party to the case, which is parents in poor areas, requires not being satisfied with statements because citizens in these districts do not have "professionals" who can make statements or media spokespeople, as is the case with the second party, which is the Ministry of Education.

Anyone who gets a chance to read everything that has been published about the merger over the past two months will not be able to form a true picture of what happened. The best that he can conclude is that the media are saying that the problem has been solved.