Middle classes and educational system in Morocco
A passionate debate followed conclusions delivered by researchers and writers of the white book dedicated to “middle classes and the educational system in Morocco”. The Amadeus Institute has indeed co-hosted with club Entreprendre a conference dedicated to the presentation of a white book published following a reflection engaged in 2008 through its workshop organized by the Institute with Moroccan researchers. The main conclusions underpins the urgent governmental reforms which should lead to making the educational system the key player in the social process of shaping a skilled and well informed Moroccan middle class.
As mentioned by the President of the Amadeus Institute during his inaugural speech, "the purpose of this conference is to discuss the content of this publication and keep debating over the issues raised in the coming months". As ever, when complicated issues are discussed, we propose here a synthesis of the learning and main declarations of this conference. Among the speakers who took part in the debate were Latifa El Abida, secretary of State for education, Rachid Benmokhtar, former education minister, Driss Ksikes, director of CESEM (research center of HEM school) and Thami Ghorfi, director of ESCA management school.
Prior the debate, Professor Brahim Chedati, explained the determined focus of the study, introducing hereby the question that should be discussed: Is the Moroccan educational system able to guaranty a social upgrade to the middle classes? Then, Professor Amina Refass, another member of the writing group, exposed the two main areas in which educational engineering is expected to improve following the white book recommendations: pedagogy and program ‘content. The educational system must aim at creating a middle class that master a common background of knowledge and values. A more attractive and efficient approach must be adopted to transmit citizenship values and professional and cultural knowledge. The debate turned around the highly sensitive point, unavoidable in any discussion on education in Morocco: should it be taught in classical Arabic, in darija (Moroccan dialect) or in French? "We need to solve this national question and simultaneously improve the teaching of international languages such as English or Chinese” declared Thami Ghorfi. Despite long and passionate interventions the “question of languages” remained unsurprisingly unsolved. Thus, conclusions of the published white book on this topic refer to the absence of any study pointing to the best option. However the statement on this issue underlines also that mastering several languages is a determining asset and is one of the main objectives an educative system must achieve. Rachid Benmokhtar, former minister of education, called for a pragmatic approach. "Teaching in darija has many times brought valuable results. Only results and not political stances should be taken into consideration."
The whole assistance, researchers and speakers agreed on objectives that should lead a public reform toward a better public system for Moroccan societies in strengthening Middle classes. Meanwhile experts and historians stressed that the main limiting factor is in the choice of partners to implement reforms.
"Fate has always led to aborted reform"
Indeed the State secretary for education made a comprehensive review of the expectations met so far by the current reform. Since four or five years, shining budgetary conditions has allowed certain optimism in the Ministry which forecasts a slight improvement in scholar rates and equipment for the coming years. Nevertheless Mr. Benmokhtar reminded the assistance how many well thought reforms have failed in the past, due to many different reasons “entraves” (sometimes political, sometimes financial, and sometimes technical). And Mr. Ksikès and other researchers took the opportunity to recall that these lessons can be taken into account only when this knowledge is archived, taught and studied.
To avoid the cruel fate that led every reform to fail or to last too long before being implemented, few considerations and propositions have been made. Firstly, a broader and better communication clarifying to each social stakeholder its objectives and responsibilities must be led (that is to say families, teachers, managing executive, elected personalities and even private investors or companies). However, some of those stakeholders fell under harsh criticism when Mr. Ksikès alluded to the “conservatism of the locally elected personalities” and to the “collective resignment” regarding education.
Advancing reforms is urgently needed, insisted again and again Mrs. the State secretary and as a matter of fact, the Ministry must focus on its core missions: reform content and pedagogy, managing teachers and administrative representatives, succeeding in transmitting to the scholars a common useful background of knowledge and values. To succeed reforms, the Ministry must decentralize decision-making and give more autonomy to local authorities and institutions. Mrs. the State secretary even dared to use catchy phrase declaring, “by assuming so much different tasks (building school, “scholar canteens” or “school boarding”, conceiving program, managing teachers) ,the Ministry is risking to get under-the-average scoring in most of them”. In those circumstances this frank assessment, unusual by governmental standards, is characterized by certain courage. Therefore a more extensive decentralization process is required. That means that local authorities should acquire skills and financial means to carry a part of the national effort.
Secondly, scarcity in terms of skilled human resources was pointed out as a major factor slowing down the reforms implemented. “The lack of skilled intermediates between strategic heads of the ministry and people on the ground is obvious”, underpinned Mr. Ksikès. Thus even a devolution process can lead to an improvement only if those intermediates and teachers benefit from training and assume a part of this work. However good practices and ideas are not exclusively lying on the ministry boxes but also on the ground, in schools where practical solutions have solved many problems, added researcher Khadija Ramram.
The whole governance issue appeared to be the major challenge Morocco faces in accelerating and improving reform efficiency. Albeit it may not have been discussed enough during this long debate, this issue should be considered prior to any others. Indeed royal Commission on devolution will deliver its conclusion to the King at the end of December.
How international cooperation could help achieve the objectives of the mission? This was another unanswered question of this ambitious conference. “Change is possible” concluded State secretary Latifa El Abida, a statement shared by the researchers. School and educational values must therefore improve among the population. “Schools must be cheered and respected” following Mr. Ghorfi’s ending word. This is indeed the only way for parents to feel more involved and for professors to more actively take part in shaping the future of their students, to give them the opportunity to reach the middle classe and even higher living standards.
The Amadeus Institute will keep contributing through coming debates, analyses and interviews available online to follow up the recommendations issuing publication and debate.
L’Institut Amadeus ne manquera pas de revenir sur les développements du processus de régionalisation et sa valeur dans le cadre de l’amélioration du système éducatif dans des analyses et entretiens depuis son site internet.
