In recent years there has been a growing
governmental interest in developing infrastructure in rural areas of
Morocco. The figures produced by the Human Development Index (HDI) have
shown that Morocco has a long way to go to create a viable environment
for growth in remote villages in the Atlas and Riff mountains. The
policies followed since Independence in 1956 have proven their
limitation. Vast parts of rural Morocco lacked electricity and water
installations. Years of severe drought drove thousands of peasants to
migrate to towns in the 1980s. In cities like Casablanca, Rabat, and
Fes, slums were visible signs of the rising poverty among Moroccan
population.
In 1998 when the opposition party took
office, a new initiative was taken. A large program of electrification
of Moroccan rural areas took place in a relatively short period of time.
34.000 villages benefited from this project by the end of the program
in 2007.[1] Along with electrification, the government sought to supply
drinking water to remote villages. An ambitious program, PAGER
(Programme d’approvisionnement groupé en eau potable des populations
rurales) was launched by the government and resulted in significant
amelioration of living conditions.[2]
Nevertheless, the overall HD indicators
still showed that Morocco was lagging behind, and that the successes
achieved were not enough. The Human Development Index introduced by the
United Nations in early 1990s focused on three major indicators, namely
life expectancy, living conditions and education. The last Human
development report based on statistics for the year 2011 shows that
Morocco does not feature among the first ten countries with highest HD
scores in Africa.
In terms of life expectancy, the figures
supplied by CIA World Factbook show that the total population average
age is 76.11 years according to the 2011 estimates. Morocco ranks 79 out
of 221 countries. This signals a significant improvement from 2004
figures which gave the average age at 70.66.[3] Infant mortality rate
dropped from total of 41.62 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2004 to
26.49. Still the rate is high and the government is required to develop
new projects to reduce infant mortality in rural areas where health
centers are scarce and poorly supplied.
Another criterion used to measure Human
development progress is the standard of living based on Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) figures. Morocco imports oil and gas which creates
enormous pressure on the national budget. The GDP of Morocco for 2009 is
estimated at $163 billion a significant growth from $131.5 billion
recorded for 2007.[4]
In face of the increasing demand for job
opportunities, decent housing and good services, the economic challenge
for Morocco remains great. improvement in social welfare is dependent
on sustained economic growth and modernization and empowerment of the
industrial sector.
While recent statistics have shown that
Morocco achieved significant economic progress and continued to reduce
the high rates of poverty especially in rural areas, educational
policies have lacked the same vigor and efficiency. The figures cited in
The 2004 Census show that 47.7% of the population aged over 15 are
illiterate. Only 39.6% of the female population is literate compared to
65.7% males. These figures are old and do not pay homage to the efforts
deployed by the recent governments. Still, there are three major causes
for this high rate of illiteracy. First there is the lack or difficulty
of access to public schools for children living in rural areas. Until
recently, rural population especially in remote villages did not have
access to schools which were either nonexistent or too far situated from
students’ homes. In particular cases, even with the establishment of
primary schools, parents saw little use in sending their kids to school
as they needed their help in rearing the cattle and tending the land.
Girls particularly were prevented from attending school because
education was perceived unnecessary as they would grow to be housewives.
The second factor for the high rate
of illiteracy is the number of school dropouts especially in rural parts
of Morocco. Given the remoteness of schools and the lack of support
from families, students gradually fail to cope with the demands of their
instructors and return to their old farming occupations. Even with the
introduction of new policies, the number of drop-outs in elementary
schools remains worrying. The figures supplied by the ministry of
education for 2008 show that 216,176 students left school, more than
half of them were girls. The figures related to middle schools are no
different. The number of dropouts counted 167,929, of whom 67,391 were
females.
Aware of these continuing difficulties
and determined to provide adequate solutions, the Moroccan government
launches an emergency plan for 2009-2012 which aims at prolonging
obligatory education to 15 years. The cost of this ambitious plan is
100 millions de Dirhams. The plan includes building boarding schools in
the villages, rebuilding decaying ones, giving incentives to teachers
teaching in far-flung villages. The government also initiated a policy
of helping poor families by offering them cash money on condition of
enabling their children to remain at school. Also in the last two years
the government launched the “one million schoolbags” to support poor
families who faced difficulties in providing for their children.[5]
The most enduring problem in improving
HD figures, however, remains adult illiteracy. The high rate of
illiteracy is due mainly to the existence of a large number of adults
who at a point in their lives failed to learn how to write and read. The
government established a department within the ministry of education
devoted to exclusively to fighting illiteracy and providing non-formal
programs of education for adults and drop-outs. The efforts made during
the first years of launching this initiative produced encouraging
results. The 2006 census shows a decline in the rate of illiteracy from
52.3% in 2004 to 34% among the population aged 10 years or more. For
this extraordinary achievement Morocco was awarded the UNESCO Confucius
Prize for Literacy in 2006.
These results are the fruit of joint
efforts between the government and a large number of non-governmental
organizations. Significant as they are, the achievements realized so far
are not satisfactory in the long term. Fighting illiteracy is certainly
not the job of the government alone. There are a number of active
associations devoted exclusively to fighting illiteracy among adult
populations in urban as well as rural areas.
Given the high rate of illiteracy
and limited resources available to these associations, adult illiteracy
will not be eradicated in the next few years as it was hoped. The policy
followed by the government has not made it clear to the public that
illiteracy has a serious and immediate impact on global economic
development of the country. The mobilization of the civil society to
take an active part in fighting illiteracy will certainly yield more
fruitful results. School teachers and students have not been directly
involved in this operation. In a number of countries particularly in
Latin America students were trained to teach adults the basics of
reading and writing. In Ecuador, for instance, a campaign was launched
in 1988 under the name “Monseñor Leonidas Proaño” that required
secondary-school students to provide education for illiterate adults and
be useful to their communities. The program cost US$ 3 million and was
fully funded by the Ecuadorian government. 75. 000 secondary-school
students took part in this campaign. They were first trained to be good
functional educators and social workers. Not only did students help
adult illiterates to learn how to write and read, they also helped
create convenient conditions for adult learners, especially mothers by
taking care of their kids at home. For their services, students received
“a formal recognition for their contribution to the campaign and to the
country.”[6]
The results of this campaign were
excellent as Rosa María Torres, the ex-pedagogical director of the
campaign states in her report. One of her concluding points was that
“young students can make excellent literacy educators and community
organizers if provided with adequate training and support, empowered and
reinforced in their self-confidence and self-esteem”.[7]
The present coalition government led by
Justice and Development (PJD) of moderate Islamist leanings has the
responsibility to devise a new and more ambitious policy to replace the
Emergency Plan launched by the previous government and which has
generated significant results. It is fair to cite the report of the
Oxford Business Group in this respect:
The enrolment rate for pupils aged
between 6 and 11 stood at 97.5% over 2010/11, up from 91.4% in 2007/08.
Rates for students aged between 12 and 14 also increased from 71.3% to
79.1%, and from 48.1% to 52.8% for students between 15 and 17. In
addition, the number of students opting for scientific and technical
studies rose from 55.1% in 2008 to 60.6% in 2011.[8]
The prospects, however, are far
from cheerful . Along with rendering education accessible, the PJD led
government is now under increasing pressures to provide decent
employment opportunities. The concluding note of the Oxford Business
Group draws attention to this challenge:
Instability across the region caused
by the Arab Spring has put more pressure on the government to step up
its efforts in tackling youth unemployment through better quality
education, easing the transition for graduates from campus to the
workplace.[9]
.jpg)
