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Firm
Reform Plans for Moribund System in Morocco
By Nizar Al-Aly, Inter Press Service |
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 RABAT,
Mar 24 (IPS) - Finally, Morocco is planning sweeping changes
to modernise its education system. |
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| King
Mohammed VI, who has been pushing hard to propel his country
forward since his ascension to the throne last July, recently
called for an extraordinary session of the Moroccan Parliament
to debate and endorse a national education strategy. |
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| The
strategy, devised by a panel of governmental and independent
experts appointed last year by the late King Hassan, is aimed
at modernising the present educational system. |
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For
many years the country's education sector has been criticised
as being outdated and unable to keep pace with the times.
The critical situation is reflected by high unemployment and
illiteracy rates.
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| Unemployment,
which affects almost everybody in Morocco from dock workers
to doctors, is a high 54 percent among graduates of some specialities
like engineering, while the national rate is 20 percent. Jobless
doctors, engineers and doctorate holders regularly stage protests
in front of the Parliament building on Rabat's main avenue to
claim their constitutional right to employment. |
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| An
estimated 55 percent of its 28 million people are illiterate
-- putting Morocco lower than its Maghreban Union partners,
Algeria and Tunisia, in the ranking by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP). |
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| Education
reforms, which will be implemented from the start of the new
academic year in September, provides for the expansion of education,
specially in the rural areas, consolidation of scientific research,
changing curricula in schools and universities to meet the requirements
of the job market and instituting a paying system for the country's
rich layers. |
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| Morocco's
socialist Prime Minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, told Parliament
recently that ''compulsory education guarantees to all citizens
the right of knowledge, in accordance with the teachings of
Islam and with the UN convention on children's rights.'' Youssoufi
pledged that his government would spare no effort to ensure
to make education available to all Moroccan children aged between
six and 15 years.' |
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Figures disclosed by Moroccan National Education Minister, Smail
Alaoui, at the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year, show
that some 3,637,000 children below the age of seven were enrolled
in schools -- a little less than half of these from rural areas. |
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Tens of thousands of other children are deprived of their right
to education, because of poverty and lack of basic infrastructure,
especially in the remote areas. ''A considerable number of Moroccan
households prefer to send their children to work instead of
to school to contribute to the income of the family,'' says
Najim Hilmi, a Rabat-based sociologist. |
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| Teachers
in remote rural areas complain that schools are often located
far from homes, discouraging parents from enrolling children.
Those eager to be educated, have to often walk long distance,
often in the mountains, to reach the school. |
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| The
government's education department has announced it will build
2.714 schools in rural areas by the end of next summer. The
introduction of new technologies like Internet in primary and
high schools and fees for the rich are major shifts in education
policy. |
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| The
plan envisages computers in every Moroccan school. ''The move
seeks to enhance the skills of pupils and to open new horizons
for them,'' says Smail Alaoui. |
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| For
this Morocco has signed an 800 million dollar contract with
the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to equip
several schools with computers and to train teachers in the
use of modern technology in education. |
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| Sociologist
Hilmi sees the innovations as ''positive'', but urged the government
to spend more money on education. |
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| Youssoufi
announced in Parliament that the government will earmark 5 percent
of Gross Domestic Product to education as of next year. During
the extraordinary session Parliament will finalise plans to
make the rich pay for secondary and university education. |
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| A
study conducted by former education minister, Rachid Belmokhtar,
showed that the wealthy benefited from 65 percent of education
spending, compared 5.5 percent for the poor. |
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| Henceforth
university scholarships will be extended only to gifted students
from needy families under the new plans to raise education levels
and standards in Morocco. So far every student collected 130
dollars every three months for university education. |
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| According
to Hilmi, education reform ''is a battle that Moroccans have
to win, if they want to survive in the new world environment
and bring their country in line with the twenty-first century.''
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| This
article is free of copyright restrictions and can be reproduced
provided that Inter Press Service is credited. |
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