It was in the year 1963 that education was made compulsory for all Moroccan children between the ages of 6 through 13. Despite having a number of institutes 42 years later, the enrollment in higher education institutes is less than 3.5 percent of total population , leading to lower literacy percentage in Morocco.
The internal efficiency (the productivity inside the school which is generally established by the administration and teachers) is low and the dropout and repetition rates. There is also an unmet need of rising demand of middle schools after achieving high access rates in primary education. The problem is more acute in the rural schools due to inadequate supply and quality of instructional materials. The poor quality of education becomes an even greater problem due to Arabic-Berber language issues. Most of the Berber family children hardly know any Arabic (it is not taught at home because most parents want their children to be businessmen and French is the primary language spoken), which is the medium of instruction in schools, when students enter primary level. For example, low literacy in the Maghreb region is also a major problem. In Morocco, the adult illiteracy rate is still at a high at around 40 percent in 2007, despite concerted efforts being made since independence in 1956 to reduce the rate of illiteracy which at that time was 87 percent. In absolute terms the illiterate adults have grown from six to nine million persons from 1956 to 2007. Morocco is one of the five Arab countries in which 70 percent of the some 70 million illiterate adults in the Arab world are concentrated. (Mauritania and Morocco: Research paper prepared for the UNESCO Regional Conferences in Support of Global Literacy). For the female genders in the rural areas, the situation is even worse. For example, three quaters of women were considered to be illiterate in 2004. (United Nations 2007.Literacy Policies and Strategies in the Maghreb: Comparative Perspectives from Algeria). Aside from this, there has been a high emigration rate of skilled workers, that is, the total number of highly skilled emigrants to the total number of educated people back home is high. This way Morocco is losing a substantial number of skilled work force to foreign countries, being the largest migrant population among North Africans in Europe. This immigration of learned and skilled citizens to foreign countries is one of the major factors of the depletion of teachers in literary advancement and explains the reason of Morocco’s low literacy rate. This is where the Moroccan Literacy Service Union comes in.
Here at the Moroccan Literacy Service Union, we have come up with a couple of ideas, or perhaps recommendations, as to changing the literacy program in Morocco for the better of the people. Firstly, we have thought up of adopting a specific intervention approach to the target public context. For example, the disconnection of adult literacy programs from the pace of pedagogic activity and the diversification of the programs offered in relation to cultural, linguistic specifications and socio-demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of target populations couldappreciably improve the attraction of the programs and consequently reduce the levels of illiteracy. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001399/139954eo.pdf)
Based on this idea, we have decided to lead the abandonment of the “single organization” logic of programs (calendars or time tables, classrooms, duration of learning) in favor of a logic in which the center of interest would be the learner himself. Consequently, it is the target public which becomes the master of its decision in relation to its daily experience. This will strengthen the retention of learners up to the completion of their courses.
As one of the most trusted allies of the European Union, Morocco is an active member of the United Nations and looks forward to its support to the revitalize literary programs benefit the community of Morocco.
The internal efficiency (the productivity inside the school which is generally established by the administration and teachers) is low and the dropout and repetition rates. There is also an unmet need of rising demand of middle schools after achieving high access rates in primary education. The problem is more acute in the rural schools due to inadequate supply and quality of instructional materials. The poor quality of education becomes an even greater problem due to Arabic-Berber language issues. Most of the Berber family children hardly know any Arabic (it is not taught at home because most parents want their children to be businessmen and French is the primary language spoken), which is the medium of instruction in schools, when students enter primary level. For example, low literacy in the Maghreb region is also a major problem. In Morocco, the adult illiteracy rate is still at a high at around 40 percent in 2007, despite concerted efforts being made since independence in 1956 to reduce the rate of illiteracy which at that time was 87 percent. In absolute terms the illiterate adults have grown from six to nine million persons from 1956 to 2007. Morocco is one of the five Arab countries in which 70 percent of the some 70 million illiterate adults in the Arab world are concentrated. (Mauritania and Morocco: Research paper prepared for the UNESCO Regional Conferences in Support of Global Literacy). For the female genders in the rural areas, the situation is even worse. For example, three quaters of women were considered to be illiterate in 2004. (United Nations 2007.Literacy Policies and Strategies in the Maghreb: Comparative Perspectives from Algeria). Aside from this, there has been a high emigration rate of skilled workers, that is, the total number of highly skilled emigrants to the total number of educated people back home is high. This way Morocco is losing a substantial number of skilled work force to foreign countries, being the largest migrant population among North Africans in Europe. This immigration of learned and skilled citizens to foreign countries is one of the major factors of the depletion of teachers in literary advancement and explains the reason of Morocco’s low literacy rate. This is where the Moroccan Literacy Service Union comes in.
Here at the Moroccan Literacy Service Union, we have come up with a couple of ideas, or perhaps recommendations, as to changing the literacy program in Morocco for the better of the people. Firstly, we have thought up of adopting a specific intervention approach to the target public context. For example, the disconnection of adult literacy programs from the pace of pedagogic activity and the diversification of the programs offered in relation to cultural, linguistic specifications and socio-demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of target populations couldappreciably improve the attraction of the programs and consequently reduce the levels of illiteracy. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001399/139954eo.pdf)
Based on this idea, we have decided to lead the abandonment of the “single organization” logic of programs (calendars or time tables, classrooms, duration of learning) in favor of a logic in which the center of interest would be the learner himself. Consequently, it is the target public which becomes the master of its decision in relation to its daily experience. This will strengthen the retention of learners up to the completion of their courses.
As one of the most trusted allies of the European Union, Morocco is an active member of the United Nations and looks forward to its support to the revitalize literary programs benefit the community of Morocco.