Morocco

Special Reading Initiatives

Though Morocco has made significant strides in providing nearly universal access to education in the last decade, with net enrollment rates in Grade 1 going beyond 97 percent, Moroccan students constantly rank among the lowest achievers on international assessments as well as on the National Program for the Evaluation of Acquired Learning Outcomes (Programme National d’Evaluation des Acquis, or PNEA).^d Students at the fourth grade and above still lack the literacy skills necessary to carry on their studies with no considerable difficulties. In addition to the low quality of learning, dropout rates still are high, especially among girls, in rural lower secondary schools. Low levels of attendance and teacher absenteeism also contribute to the low literacy rates in Morocco. Accordingly, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training worked out a scheme to improve education quality in general and literacy in particular. Many projects related to reading instruction and learning are underway. The Reading for Success Small Scale Experimentation Activity has changed the paradigm in the Moroccan curricula and the place of reading in particular.³⁶

In fact, the story starts with a set of pilot studies conducted in cooperation with USAID (2007–2014) in certain regions of Morocco.³⁷ These studies have shown that to improve students’ reading, more focus should be put on phonological awareness skills and various strategies related to it in early grade levels. Having good phonological awareness skills means that the student is able to manipulate sounds and words. This innovative Reading for Success small scale experimentation project was geared toward experimenting a whole reading action plan on the basis of an Early Grade Assessment (EGRA) in 90 schools in a number of provincial directorates.³⁸ The National Center for Assessment, Examinations, and Orientation contributed, jointly with USAID experts and the Directorate of Curricula, to the design of assessment instruments, intervention reading materials, and training of teachers, enumerators, and supervisors.

The EGRA field study and the intervention that followed (2014–2016) have impacted students’ reading level significantly, providing a stronger rationale for literacy and evidence for adopting the syllabic approach to teaching reading.^e For that reason, in the early grades revised curriculum there will be much emphasis on the sublexical level (e.g., phonemes, syllables, distinctive sound features) on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Learners’ level of awareness about the correspondence between words and sounds during reading and writing activities boost their capacity to read fluently, listen or read for comprehension, and develop their lexis and other communicative competencies. Stories or tales, which have rarely been used in the Moroccan context, are designed and used to help students acquire positive values in addition to language and vocabulary and get them used to reading for pleasure.

In addition to the Reading for Success project, many small scale reading activities are implemented in various regions of Morocco, including reading stories, relating them by dictation, and public speaking contests. Children in Morocco also take part in an Arab reading contest, The Arab Reading Challenge Contest, which is overseen by the United Arab Emirates. The contest aims to develop a love of reading in the Arab world and to instill reading as a habit ingrained in students’ lives to increase their curiosity, critical thinking, and passion for knowledge.³⁹