The education reforms in Morocco

The education reforms in Morocco

The independence of Morocco in 1956 and a year later , the Royal Commission on the Reform of Education has established the fundamental principles of the post- independence Moroccan education . Developed over fifty years of colonial rule , the French educational model has been adopted by the Moroccan state independent and newly reorganized to present a technical track in addition to a "modern" track and the "original" integrated the traditions of the Koranic education based , focusing on the Islamic culture and civilization and using Arabic as the language of instruction .

The Ministry of Education was created in 1959 to begin the task of forming a native foreign teachers to replace teachers, build new schools and implement educational reform government .

Later Morocco faces a period of economic stagnation in the 1990s due to the extreme drought that has strained its predominantly agricultural economy . Despite the economic difficulties during this period, Morocco has made remarkable progress not only in the construction of real Morocco remarkable, but also in the development of its educational system .

The enrollment in primary school increased from 52 percent to 92 percent , the level of the middle school from 18 percent to 32 percent , and in secondary education from 6 percent to 15 percent during 1990-2004 years.

However, the formal education system in Morocco is still facing many challenges today.
Although education is more accessible and the gender gap was reduced , Morocco has not seen the positive changes seen in Asia and Latin America , especially in literacy rates and enrollment in secondary schools and universities.

The World Bank said that the quality of education in Morocco lags behind other regions in need of urgent reform if we want to fight against unemployment. Internal inefficiency is high, as evidenced by the high dropout and repetition rates. Gender and geographic disparities still exist at all levels of education. Morocco also faces a growing demand for middle schools because of better access to primary education . With public education spending already amounted to 6.6 percent of GDP, opportunities to expand the budget is limited.

To help solve the problem, the Board of Directors of the World Bank approved a loan of 80 million U.S. dollars to support an educational program based support reform , also known as PARSEM , in the Kingdom of Morocco .

PARSEM addresses these challenges by supporting government efforts to improve the quality of basic education for all children from six to fourteen in a financially sustainable manner ages. Actions supported by PARSEM are threefold :

1 . universal access to basic education , most school-age children by 2008 ;

2 . improve the quality of education by reducing dropout and repetition and improve student learning ;

3 . strengthen institutional capacity, institutional capacity in association with the process of decentralization of the sector at the central, regional, provincial and local levels. The project is part of the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS ) for Morocco , which defines the reform of education and decentralization as one of the key priorities for the fight against poverty in the UK .

World Bank with the Government of Morocco hope PARSEM that will increase access to basic education , improving the quality of education , encourage the participation of stakeholders, to ensure the financial viability and promote accountability in the management sector .