Mr. Mohamed BENCHAABOUN, Minister of Economy and Finance, and Mrs. Marie Françoise Marie-Nelly, Director of the Maghreb Department and Malta, Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, signed, Thursday, July 11th 2019 in Rabat, the loan agreement related to the program "Support to the Education Sector". This event was attended by Mr. Saaid AMZAZI, Minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Mr. Lahcen DAOUDI, Minister Delegate for General Affairs and Governance.
The objective of this program is to set an enabling environment for providing high-quality early childhood education services, the improvement of teaching practices in basic education and enhancing management skills as well as accountability throughout the provision of education services. This program is part of the strategic partnership 2019-2024 between Morocco and the World Bank and will mobilize 500 million dollars.
During his speech, the Minister of Economy and Finance stated that Education is currently the focus of the social project of our country because of the tasks it should perform in the training of future citizens and in achieving the goals of sustainable human development. He thus stressed the achievements of the National School that should be capitalized and mainly developped, the progress towards a more widespread schooling and the establishment of institutional structures of decentralized governance, with the development of regional academies.
In addition, the Minister noted that the World Bank has supported the education sector in Morocco by providing a series of investment projects and development policy loans. In this respect,he stressed that the new program for Results (PforR) will support Morocco in the implementation of the National Strategic Vision for Education (2015-2030).
On the other hand, Mrs. Marie Françoise Marie-Nelly congratulated the Moroccan Government for its valuable cooperation in developping the Program "Support to the Education Sector" ". On this occasion, she stated that the World Bank agreed on the need for a strong commitment to education which she called "Educational Miracle" and noted that this commitment now determines the Morocco-World Bank partnership for the coming 10 years.
Moreover, Mrs. Marie Françoise Marie-Nelly stressed the new integrated approach of the stakeholders as well as the collaborative leadership between the various actors of the education system in Morocco. This system aims at a paradigm shift that involves a renewed implementation approach based on results, flexibility and speed. Within this framework, the representative of the World Bank stated that the objective of the said program is to support this required shift in order to put the educational system on an upward and sustainable trajectory.
The program "Support to the Education Sector" focuses on three components:
- Set up an enabling environment to provide quality pre-school education services, through the establishment of a training program for pre-school educators; the implementation of a graduating training system for 20,000 preschool educators and the implementation of tools to assess the quality of the preschool learning environment.
- Enhance teaching practices in basic education, in particular by improving the models of selection, recruitment, integration and distribution of teachers, by strengthening a coherent, coordinated and comprehensive training model and establishing online training courses and a technology platform for knowledge sharing.
- Reinforce management capacity and accountability throughout the provision of education services. This area intends to strengthen a management mode at school level that aims to digitize the data collected at school level in the education information and management system (MASSAR). It also intends to establish an assessment and appraisal mechanism for school projects including guidelines, rules for monitoring and feedback, and the setting up of an assessment system at the provincial and local levels.