Morocco trains teachers to keep kids in class

The ITQANE project will give secondary-school teachers more skills to help them keep young Moroccans from abandoning their studies.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 05/05/10

To curb high drop-out rates in secondary schools, Rabat's education officials have launched a teacher-training project aimed at encouraging students to stay in class and pursue careers.

"The new project is supporting students [and] enhancing the quality of education at the level of secondary education," said Education Secretary Latifa El Abidah. "It targets youth who need support in order to choose their career."

The Education Ministry, working in co-ordination with USAID, launched the Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education (ITQANE) initiative on April 29th.

The $14 million project will first be implemented in the pilot regions of Fez-Boulman and Doukkala-Abda before being widened to other regions. The project is part of Morocco's 2009 emergency plan to improve the education of all students.

ITQANE, which in Arabic means "to perfect", is the product of 14 years of collaboration between Morocco and USAID. During this period, the agency worked with education officials to boost the school system and improve students' performance.

"It's a project that falls within the framework of the excellent collaboration between Morocco and USAID, which has supported many programs in Morocco, such as 'Moroccan Education for Girls' that aims at supporting girls' education in elementary schools, and 'Alef', which focuses on improving the quality and relevance of elementary and secondary school," El Abidah said.

According to a USAID education official involved in the initiative, secondary-schools students have the highest drop-out rate in Morocco.

The initiative prioritizes teacher training, said project manager Christina N'tchougan-Sonou.

"We will train teachers as well as those who are still in training. In addition, we will train leaders and principals of educational institutions, superintendents and advisers," she said.

The project will also introduce monitoring and evaluation systems to bolster advances made as a result of the initiative.

The head of the Central Unit for Professional Training, Mohammed Dali, welcomed the initiative.

"I believe all involved parties in the education system need training, especially during the educational reform phase," he said. "There are always new developments in the field that the teachers should keep up with by going for continuing training."

"Through this project, teachers will be trained to do their job well and teach them how to assess their work," said US ambassador to Morocco Samuel Kaplan. "This is part of the drive aiming at improving the quality of education world-wide, and it is part of [US] President Barack Obama's vision to establish a strong relationship with the Arab world."

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/05/05/feature-03.