Travel

While on my field experience in Morocco I was interested in several aspects of Moroccan education systems. One of my main interests was to investigate equity in education. Specifically, I was interested in learning more about equitable opportunities for women, members of lower socioeconomic status, rural students, and Amazigh students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and/or Mathematics (STEM) education. 

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Unfortunately, I found that the Moroccan education system still has a long way to go before having equity for all students in STEM education. However, Morocco is making progress and efforts to reduce inequalities in education overall for women, rural students, and Amazigh students. One way Morocco is reducing inequality in education is through nationwide initiatives such as the Strategic Vision 2015-2030. The goal of the Strategic Vision 2015-2030 is to achieve equity by improving educational quality, expanding compulsory preschool, and aligning job training with the modern economy. The plan uses core pillars such as universal access to education, elevated teacher training and teaching standards, updating curricula, and integrating technology to advance education for all Moroccan students. 

 

The Strategic Vision 2015-2030 uses approaches such as the 2022-2026 Roadmap, the Pioneer Schools Initiative, and Digital Morocco 2030. The 2022-2026 Roadmap focuses on three major goals: to increase the number of students at mastery in reading, writing, and math by more than 30%, to reduce drop out rates by more than 30%, and to increase participation in extracurricular activities. As part of Morocco's 2nd national priority, the 2022-2026 Roadmap has helped to increase access to education for rural students by increasing the amount of buses in rural areas each year. However, the increase in buses is funded at the local and not national level so there are still disparities among different regions. The Pioneer Schools Initiative which was created in 2023 aims to combat low learning outcomes by improving teacher preparation and training, increasing teacher specialization, and increasing access to educational materials. In addition, the initiative promotes the Teaching at the Right Level (TARL) strategy which helps to improve student learning outcomes by meeting the students where they are educationally and building upon their prior knowledge. Digital Morocco 2030 is another program that is part of the Strategic Vision 2015-2030 that aims to improve student education. The program provides increased opportunities for information technology, artificial intelligence, and computational thinking to help students develop the global competence skills and come competitive in the global marketplace. 

 

In addition to the approaches used in the Strategic Vision 2015-2030, there are several other initiatives to increase equity in education for all Moroccan students. For example, Princess Lalla Asmaa Centers located throughout the country provide services such as free child care and education for individuals with hearing disabilities. In addition, Framework Law 97.13 helps to increase equity for individuals with disabilities and provides education protections such as the right for all students to have an education. In addition, other initiatives are in place to increase opportunities for women in STEM such as Girls in STEM, eSTEM, GENIE Program, Girls for Impact, and Women in Tech. Furthermore, making Tamazight (language of the Amazigh) an official language of Morocco has helped to increase opportunities in education for Amazigh people.

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One of my main takeaways in regards to equity in STEM education in Morocco is that there is progress being made, but the Moroccan education system still has a long way to go before it becomes truly equitable for all students. This was especially evident with inequalities for women and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. For example, many young girls are unable to complete their education because they often are forced to stay home and help raise younger siblings or other household duties, especially in poor rural areas. Unfortunately, even if girls are able to continue their education at secondary or post secondary levels, they are often treated differently. For example, I witnessed multiple male educators speaking poorly about their female students. One educator described how it is rare for female students to do well in the classroom, and singled out one student just because they were female and were excelling in their coursework. Myself and other fellows found this to be quite unsettling. Another takeaway was that there is little to no equity for students that are members of the LGBTQIA+ community. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community myself, I wanted to investigate equitable opportunities in education for members of this community. However, I was encouraged to not include this aspect in my guiding question for safety concerns. I found this to be highly alarming and incredibly sad. Unfortunately, this topic is still very taboo and frowned upon in most aspects of Moroccan culture, and therefore there are very few if any equitable opportunities for LGBTQIA+ youth and students. Although the Moroccan education system still has much progress to be made in terms of providing equitable education for ALL students, there are initiatives in place and stakeholders in the education sector that are working hard to solve this problem and increase equity in education for all Moroccan students.

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