02.25.07
USAID-Global Snapshots: Morocco and Education
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/wid/snapshot/ane/morocco/morocco_ed.html
USAID/Morocco promotes policy changes aimed at achieving gender equity in schools. Educational activities, such as the training of school personnel, focus on providing quality basic education for girls in rural Morocco. Parent-teacher associations (PTAs) provide opportunities to integrate community concerns into educational management systems. USAID/Morocco also supports the financing of private middle-school scholarship programs for girls.
Morocco Education for Girls (MEG)
A collaboration between USAID/Morocco and Creative Associates International (CAII), the MEG program (completed in 2004) improved the learning environment for rural girls and boys in Morocco. Targeting 32 rural schools, MEG aimed to increase the number of girls who complete six years of primary school education. This activity trained teachers, school directors, teacher-trainers, and education planners to better manage classrooms and schools. By improving schools to make them more responsive to the educational needs of girls, MEG benefited boys as well, whose enrollment also increased in rural areas.
MEG also worked with community members to establish parent-teacher associations and train over 500 board members to articulate community concerns and assume greater responsibility for their schools. In addition, this activity built on prior work under the Mission supported LearnLink program to develop multi-media centers in teacher training colleges, thereby narrowing the digital divide gap among educators. An interactive education web site called Ibtikar, which means “innovation” in Arabic, also was created for the Moroccan education community.
Scholarships for Success
Supported by USAID, the U.S. Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the Comite de Soutien a la Scolarisation des Filles de Rurales (CSSF) Scholarships for Success activity increases opportunities for Moroccan girls to attend middle school. The project offers 400 girls an opportunity to live near school, limiting their need to travel long distances unaccompanied. In addition, girls are provided with dormitory management, tutoring, computers, and school supplies. Program evaluations indicate the impact of the program is felt well beyond its immediate recipients, as family members and friends of girls who already received scholarships express excitement about participating in the activity and staying in school. The Moroccan Ministry of Education is expanding on the program’s success by guaranteeing these girls a place in high school dormitories when they graduate from middle school, and the Ministry of Health provides the girls with free medical check ups.
