Morocco will continue its internationally-recognized fight against illiteracy by forming a new agency to support literacy initiatives.
By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 23/03/10
The Moroccan government will create a national agency to tackle illiteracy, according to a bill adopted by the cabinet on Thursday (March 18th).
The agency will propose and implement literacy programs, pursue funding sources and promote international co-operation, Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said. It will also coordinate literacy activities between government and non-government organizations.
The agency's creation follows through on commitments made by the prime minister in 2007, National Campaign against Illiteracy Director El Habib Nadir said.
A legacy of illiteracy poses a significant challenge to the agency's goals, Nadir added, especially since Morocco has only in the last ten years begun to address the problem.
Government officials are creating the agency as part of a literacy campaign that has accelerated over the past ten years. Around 656,000 Moroccans benefited from government literacy programs in 2008-09, according to Illiteracy Prevention Department statistics. That number marks a significant rise from the 286,000 beneficiaries in 2002-03 and the 180,000 beneficiaries in 1998-99.
Almost 4 million Moroccans have benefited from literacy programs over the last six years, according to IPD statistics -- twice as many as benefited from literacy programs in the preceding two decades.
Women make up more than 80% of the beneficiaries of literacy programs targeting Moroccans aged 15 and older. Government literacy programs have prioritized women aged 15-45 in rural areas.
Great efforts are being made to adopt a gender-based approach in efforts to deal with educational and training related issues, and to ban all forms of discrimination between the sexes, Secretary of State for School Education Latifa Labida said March 17th. Labida spoke at a meeting on the school enrollment of girls in rural areas.
Officials have promoted gender equality in education through discussions about the role of women, amendments to school curricula and efforts to purge stereotypes that are detrimental to women from school textbooks, Labida said.
The international community has also taken note of Morocco's advances in literacy. UNESCO awarded Morocco the Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2006.
Despite great advances in literacy rates, the scale of illiteracy in Morocco and the prevalence of school abandonment make it unlikely that the government will eradicate illiteracy by 2015, according to the Ministry of Education.
The Illiteracy Prevention Department has called for key governmental departments to become more involved with social demographics with high illiteracy rates, which in clued farmers, fishermen and craft workers. The department has also called for the government to make literacy a component of sector-specific development projects.
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/03/23/feature-02.
By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 23/03/10
The Moroccan government will create a national agency to tackle illiteracy, according to a bill adopted by the cabinet on Thursday (March 18th).
The agency will propose and implement literacy programs, pursue funding sources and promote international co-operation, Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said. It will also coordinate literacy activities between government and non-government organizations.
The agency's creation follows through on commitments made by the prime minister in 2007, National Campaign against Illiteracy Director El Habib Nadir said.
A legacy of illiteracy poses a significant challenge to the agency's goals, Nadir added, especially since Morocco has only in the last ten years begun to address the problem.
Government officials are creating the agency as part of a literacy campaign that has accelerated over the past ten years. Around 656,000 Moroccans benefited from government literacy programs in 2008-09, according to Illiteracy Prevention Department statistics. That number marks a significant rise from the 286,000 beneficiaries in 2002-03 and the 180,000 beneficiaries in 1998-99.
Almost 4 million Moroccans have benefited from literacy programs over the last six years, according to IPD statistics -- twice as many as benefited from literacy programs in the preceding two decades.
Women make up more than 80% of the beneficiaries of literacy programs targeting Moroccans aged 15 and older. Government literacy programs have prioritized women aged 15-45 in rural areas.
Great efforts are being made to adopt a gender-based approach in efforts to deal with educational and training related issues, and to ban all forms of discrimination between the sexes, Secretary of State for School Education Latifa Labida said March 17th. Labida spoke at a meeting on the school enrollment of girls in rural areas.
Officials have promoted gender equality in education through discussions about the role of women, amendments to school curricula and efforts to purge stereotypes that are detrimental to women from school textbooks, Labida said.
The international community has also taken note of Morocco's advances in literacy. UNESCO awarded Morocco the Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2006.
Despite great advances in literacy rates, the scale of illiteracy in Morocco and the prevalence of school abandonment make it unlikely that the government will eradicate illiteracy by 2015, according to the Ministry of Education.
The Illiteracy Prevention Department has called for key governmental departments to become more involved with social demographics with high illiteracy rates, which in clued farmers, fishermen and craft workers. The department has also called for the government to make literacy a component of sector-specific development projects.
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/03/23/feature-02.
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