Challenges for Morocco’s Education System

Education is supposed to prepare today’s students for the future. However, it is provided by teachers whose training and methods are mired in the past. New actors — parents, politicians and trade unions — need to be brought together to design better ways of preparing tomorrow’s citizens to face the coming societal challenges.

The traditional way of approaching educational development — building infrastructure and focusing on teachers — neglects students and the quality of their education. Morocco needs to reverse this tendency by beginning to concentrate on the outcome of its education system. The country needs a new generation of young people who have the ability to analyze, interpret, synthesize and be self-reliant after they enter the labor force. Yet, while industry is rapidly becoming "high-tech" under the pressure of international competition, Morocco is still at a stage where its schools are "low-tech." The cause for this inadequacy lies in part with the high cost of specialized education; its consequence is a great rift between graduates and unemployed, less educated workers.

Several reforms could help remedy the inadequacies of Morocco’s education system: a) changing teaching methods; b) reversing the education pyramid to increase access to and expenditures on basic education; c) focusing on children’s autonomy in learning by using case studies and team-building methods; and d) opening programs to various professionals beyond teachers. Schools can usefully be compared to enterprises; they should be managed as such and should be evaluated by parents and communities on the basis of their outputs. Schools should also welcome competition.

How can teaching methodologies and teacher training be modernized? A modernization strategy should follow a certain sequence of steps. First, the relevant authority should visit schools, discuss problems with teachers, and conduct a performance appraisal. These steps should be carried out transparently and democratically, to increase acceptance of the results. Next, the teacher training that follows this appraisal should take place within the schools, to ensure that the training received is relevant to the actual needs of the school and its pupils. Small-scale experiments currently taking place in Morocco confirm the validity of this approach. One such program, conducted under the auspices of United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), consists of retraining teachers using interactive television programs. Another experiment focuses on developing pupils’ leadership skills and encourages them to learn how to study on their own.

Such radical changes would not be easy. Teachers who are used to the status quo would find these changes difficult and destabilizing. Reforming and reviving Moroccan schools would also entail other costs — not only the financial costs associated with physical and curricular modernization, but also other political costs.

By Rachid Ben Mokhtar