En 2006, Clairefontaine poursuit son partenariat avec l'Unicef pour que tous les enfants du monde aient un accès à un enseignement de qualité et met en place une opération d'envergure pour la scolarisation des enfants défavorisés du Maroc. 

Government/UNICEF Cooperation Programme for Morocco

Quality Education for All

The Education Situation in Morocco

Huge progress has marked the last few years. 92,85% of children aged 6-11 are now enrolled in primary schools. 90,08% of girls in this age group and 84,25% of girls from rural areas are also enrolled.

However it will prove more difficult to enrol the remaining children - 250 000, of whom an estimated 160 000 are girls. It goes without saying that the children concerned are from the most impoverished families and the most isolated areas.

High drop-out rates are one of the main causes for the lack of progress. In rural areas only 38% of children complete the primary curriculum.

For girls there are many reasons for this situation, including the state infrastructure - schools too remote from home for children’s safety, poor quality of teaching and supervision and the high cost of school books and other materials. Lack of motivation on the part of parents is also a significant factor in attendance by girls at school as an alternative to domestic work, family life and other expectations concerning the traditional role of women in society.

The Contribution of the Government/UNICEF Programme

Since 2002, with the support of its benefactors, including the French Committee, UNICEF has been working on the problem of poor attendance. The government now recognises the development by UNICEF and its partners of a participatory and decentralised process for the improved quality of education The Minister of Education and UNICEF have concentrated most of their efforts in this area of high drop-out rates, tackling the main reasons for them.

This process includes a range of actions covering:

• the preparation for entrance into primary school (pre-school education)
• school management (school quality plans)
• the curriculum (programmes adapted to the local environment and culture)
• methods (evaluation of learning and teaching techniques)
• behaviour (non-violent schools).

Results from selected schools are evaluated annually, based on the changes in drop-out rates, which have diminished in these educational establishments, whereas nationally they continue to rise. It is estimated that 20 000 children would have left school, if these positive, as well as preventative, actions had not been taken.

2006 is the year of:

1. Continuing supervision, evaluation and further development of the involvement of local communities in schools participating in the whole or part of the process (more than 300 schools are now participating in the school quality programme, but with varying results, depending on the establishment).
2. Further development of measures for the more vulnerable communities.

This will be the basis for action in 2007 and 2008, which will be dedicated to the fight against exclusion of girls and the recognition of their status in the community.

The Role of the Benefactor

The principal objective in this program is to help the participating schools year on year to reduce the school drop-out rate to a minimum.

Specific objectives which will contribute to the overall results are detailed below.

Strategy

The strategy behind the success of this programme will be maintained primarily by constant dialogue between those involved at ground level and the central organisation. New processes will be initiated, put into action, evaluated, and the best action plans and programmes nationally adopted.

Geographical Cover - the Beneficiaries

The programme is being carried out in four of Morocco’s 16 regions of and will potentially benefit more than one million children of school attendance age in these regions. Based on area poverty levels, an estimated 100,000 children between 4 and 15 in specifically selected educational establishments will be directly targeted by these actions.

Importance of Uniform Evaluation Charts in Participating Schools.

By the end of 2007, 2000 schools with an estimated 70 000 enrolled children could be participating in this programme. It involves the continuous auditing of the quality of education in particular educational establishments. This will be followed by an improvement plan based on the highlighted strengths and weaknesses. Children, parents and teachers will be consulted (separately in order to obtain all points of view), based on a series of criteria, which concern the educational infrastructure, teaching methods and supervision of individual pupils. The different points of view will then be debated, resulting in an overall picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the establishment. Based on the conclusions, a programme of improvements, in which each player has a role, will be implemented.

This programme will assist the Minister of Education in the training of managers, who in turn will disseminate and implement the programme in the schools.

Emphasis on the Achievement of School Action Plans

By the end of 2007, as part of the plans for community development, 50 schools and/or other pre-school establishments in the targeted areas could benefit from grants, enabling them to achieve their objectives, laid down in conformity with the Convention for Children’s Rights.

Some parts of the school action plan will depend just on the goodwill of school staff and pupils, but others will require external support. The award of grants would be based on the quality and degree of participation in the action plans by schools in most difficulty. Lack of school books, the absence of lavatories, transportation problems, shortage of preschool structures, are all challenges often beyond the means of the poorest communities. All these further impede school attendance and in particular that of girls from rural areas.

Emphasis on the Development of the Pre-School Sector.

By the end of 2007, 600 teachers responsible for 18 000 children, aged four to six, in community pre-school facilities will be trained in the use of a teaching kit, which will enable them to guarantee the children a better preparation for their entrance into primary school.

Evaluation tests for primary school pupils demonstrate a strong correlation between good results and prior attendance at good quality pre-schools. All pre-schools in Morocco are private. This tends to reinforce inequality from the start. In order to compensate for this imbalance, the Minister of Education is setting up a framework for the training and support of instructors, while the programme will be concentrating its efforts in the most impoverished areas.

Emphasis on the Dissemination of Teaching Methods and their Evaluation.

By the end of 2007, 20% of primary teachers in the targeted areas will be able to put these methods into practice.

However, community initiatives alone will not suffice to raise the poor levels of school achievements. Basic teacher training is insufficient for enabling educators to resolve the learning difficulties of their pupils. To this end the Minister of Education has developed, within the framework of the cooperation programme, training modules for evaluation and remedial techniques. These have proved their efficiency in terms of learning skills, as well as an improvement in teacher/child relationships. Now is the time to disseminate these techniques to the targeted schools, which will also benefit from the period of teacher training support.

Emphasis on the Regionalisation of School Curricula.

By the end of 2007, 100 schools should be participating in the programmes adapted for the different regions. This part of the reform concerns the relevance and effectiveness of education. It will enable children to acquire the necessary skills for the understanding and development of their immediate environment.

Increase in Educational Opportunities for Girls

By the end of 2007, 500 schools in rural areas of the targeted regions will have significantly reduced the drop-out rate for girls.

Girls from rural areas are the most threatened by illiteracy due to the premature cessation of their schooling. On-going research concerning this matter shows a close correlation between the causes for early drop-out and those factors which, ten years earlier, impeded even registration into schools. A range of factors, including the lack of parental motivation, is further compounded by the poor acceptance of an educational system, where traditionally it is generally considered that girls do not need to learn much more than how to run a home. Faced with this situation, it is important to work hard at increasing awareness, discussion and motivation on a local level, in order to form the basis for a national strategy.

By the end of 2007, 3000 girls from rural areas could progress to secondary education. The drop-out rates are even higher in secondary than in primary schools. Confronted with the material and emotional difficulties of life outside the family, the girls in the few existing boarding schools do not enjoy conditions conducive to the effective continuation of their studies. A system of communal accommodation for girls has been created to counter these problems. Further supervision of their environment will encourage school attendance. An experiment in personal support and education, aimed at developing psychosocial competences may be carried out. This would serve as the future basis for action on a larger scale.

A Second Chance for non-mainstream Education

By the end of 2007, 1000 non-enrolled children, aged 9 to 15, in targeted areas will be offered alternative educational opportunities. The Minister of Education has developed with Non-Governmental Organisations an alternative plan for children in areas where attendance levels are the lowest: the most impoverished; the furthest from schools; and children have who help their families carry out tasks essential for everyday survival. Participation in this plan is however limited by the huge difficulties encountered by these children. The programme will bring special aid to those children, who could take advantage of this plan.

Equipment and Creation of Teaching and Communication Materials .

The programme supports the production of specific tools and provides additional equipment. This is included in the programme’s budget.

Actions, Monitoring, Evaluation and Communication at National Level.

Each action of the programme will be monitored and evaluated in order to draw conclusions and for the extension of the most efficient practices nationally.

UNICEF’s mandate is the assertion of children’s rights. To this end, beyond the action programmes carried out at regional level, UNICEF is committed to advocating at national and mass media levels a system of education for children from infancy through to adulthood.