Wikipedia
Tawjihi is the general secondary examination(in Arabic:امتحان الثانوية العامة) in Jordan, West Bank and Gaza, part of education in Jordan and in Palestine. Upon graduation, the ministry of Higher Education, through a system similar to that of the United Kingdom tariff points, 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. The reason for this, is that the quota set for the number of seats was decided in the 80's when approximately only 4 schools taught international programs, and the number of places allocated seemed fair. In fact, seeing the insignificant number of foreign program graduates, who applied for national universities, it was. Today, however, almost 25 schools teach IGCSE/GCSE/GCE programs alone.
Some argue the number of places is more than fair, and some the opposite. In all cases the issue is a source of much heated debate. Private schools are constantly trying to convince the National Assembly of Jordan to increase percentage. For the time being there seems to be no plan to do so.
The ministry of Education claims that it has no problem with increasing the number of places, and that it is in fact the universities that do not agree. On some level this is rather true, as universities benefit more by the registration of more students as international i.e. paying international fees.
Another source of trouble is the system used to transform exam results of foreign education programs into the Tawjihi scale, which is a percentage out of 100. Again, some see the system as fair and in fact over lenient with non-Tawjihi graduates, while others see it as unfair. Below is a summary of the requirements to receive an equivalency of Tawjihi, as stated by the British Council Jordan.