THE FIGHT AGAINST ILLITERACY IN MOROCCO

The contribution of the EU Support Programme and its Technical Assistance for the monitoring of this national strategy has allowed reaching tangible results

Author: Claude Dalbera

Considering the restrictions and risks, in terms of sustainability, related to the persistence of a massive illiteracy (32% of the population), Morocco has undertaken since 1999 the elaboration of an important public policy to fight illiteracy, also considered as a State obligation and based on a wide mobilization of all the key sectors of the Moroccan society: public sector (Ministry and state institutions), civil sector (associations and NGO) and private sector (business). The Literacy Programmes, with a functional nature, aim to allow their beneficiaries to reach alphanumeric and socio-economic abilities, specified in a referential, leading them to a better command of their work or to prepare them for an insertion into ongoing training programs, allowing them in any case to improve their personal life, the education of their children and the management of their active life into community.

Considering the first milestones of this strategy’s implementation, the Kingdom of Morocco and the European Union have accorded in 2007 a first Programme of support in the form of a SBS (Sector Budget Support), continued in 2011 by a second Programme of support. In the framework of these support Programmes, a series of technical assistance missions for the external monitoring have been planned and entrusted to a team of experts presented by the company Eptisa, through a public bid as required. This technical assistance, which took place from 2009 to 2016, had the following goals: 1.) supporting the Moroccan authorities in the implementation and monitoring of the strategy 2.) reviewing the specifics (targets of the performance indicators agreed) and general conditions (sector policies) relative to the disbursement of the different tranches of budget support.

Eptisa has been able to accompany a fructuous sectoral dialogue between Morocco and the European Union on this strategy and its outstanding results, both at a quantitative level (6,8 millions of illiterate people have followed training sessions along the last ten years!) – through a targeting on women and young people, and lately, rural people (category with a high proportion of low levels of qualification) – and at a qualitative level (referential, educational approach, training of trainers, use of ITC, computerized management of Programmes, monitoring and certifications, among others).

Eventually, the most spectacular progresses reached by the good management of the strategy are visible at the institutional level, which has evolved from a status of simple sector in a technical ministry to become the Direction of the Ministry of National Education and finally, more recently (in the second phase of the support Programme) to acquire the status of National Agency Against Illiteracy. An agency including in its Executive Board all the stakeholders of the strategy, and directly presided by the Head of State…