Students with Reading Difficulties

Diagnostic Testing

Diagnostic reading tests are administered on a regular basis as part of evaluating what students have learned after each three week unit. This ongoing assessment is intended to determine how much remedial work is needed and how to help underachievers catch up with high achievers.

In June 1994, the Ministry of Education endorsed a national approach toward school integration that reflects the Salamanca Statement adopted at the UNESCO World Conference on Special Education.²⁹ Children with special needs attend regular classes and receive assistance from teachers trained in special needs based on children’s diagnosed abilities, including reading abilities and their pace of learning how to read.

Instruction for Children with Reading Difficulties

There is awareness of children with disabilities, including students with reading difficulties and children with special education needs in Morocco. The education of children with disabilities is a right guaranteed by the Moroccan Constitution and supporting legislation, and an observable fact in society and schools. All members of Moroccan society must comply with this policy, particularly in schools.³⁰ The Ministry’s concern for educating children with disabilities has pushed many schools across the Kingdom of Morocco to introduce integrated classes. As recently as 10 years ago, there were no more than 30 schools in which students were taught in integrated classes. According to 2016 statistics, there are more than 690 integrated classes in 441 primary schools across Morocco. In addition, there are thousands of students with special needs who are taught in mainstream classrooms alongside their peers in regular public schools.

Morocco has enacted and implemented international legislative and regulatory texts and contracted agreements on the integration of students with disabilities. Accordingly, the Ministry has adopted a national approach for inclusive education aiming to allow students with disabilities to attend school in mainstream classes or in integrated classes with other students with disabilities.³¹ The aim of integrated classes is to prepare students with disabilities for full integration into mainstream classes by integrating them first with other students with disabilities. This approach to progressive integration helps facilitate the development of content, methods, and teaching techniques for students with disabilities. Schools with integrated classes serve children ages 6 to 15 with auditory or mild intellectual disabilities.

The Ministry, nongovernmental organizations, and civil society are acting as partners in implementing training programs for inspectors, coordinators, regular teachers, and teachers belonging to special education associations to improve their skills in the management of this group of learners. This task begins with an accurate diagnosis of students’ abilities and their learning pace. Significant advances in the education of children with special needs have been recorded in Morocco over the last 15 years. The number of children with disabilities attending school has increased by almost 12 times since the 2001–2002 school year. In the 2014–2015 school year, the number of students in integrated classes reached 6,498 (2,326 girls and 4,172 boys). The Ministry is expecting these numbers to rise with the steadily growing awareness of parents, associations, and local communities.

The Ministry has developed a regulatory and structural framework to facilitate the progressive integration of children with mild to moderate disabilities in public schools into regular or integrated classes, causing a noticeable increase in the number of integrated classes for children with autism, intellectual or motor disabilities, or auditory or visual disabilities, as well as for students with learning disorders. The figures also show that thousands of students with motor and mild mental disabilities or with chronic diseases attend regular classes without discrimination with the rest of their peers.

The Ministry has been making significant efforts to implement ramps for accessibility and provide educational services for students with disabilities. Efforts have been made to provide appropriate conditions for the administration of continual assessment and examinations for students with disabilities at the primary and secondary levels. For example, students with disabilities who are enrolled in regular schools take the same lower secondary and upper secondary exit examinations as their peers in mainstream classes, but measures are taken to provide the conditions necessary for them to be at ease during the administration of the tests (e.g., well equipped and well lit testing facilities, enlarged test materials). The nature and degree of student disabilities are taken into consideration during test administration. Sign language specialists are appointed to accompany deaf and/or mute children during examinations, and blind students are accompanied by scribes who read the questions and record student responses. An extension of 30 minutes may be granted for students with certain types of disabilities. Examinations are graded by teachers who have received practical training in scoring the achievement of students with disabilities.

Morocco is trying to invest efforts to cater to the following:

Training all stakeholders in the field of inclusive education
Equipping all classes with appropriate materials for teaching and learning
Reducing the number of students in regular classrooms that also accommodate children with disabilities in order to create conditions conducive to effective teaching and learning
Raising awareness to promote the enrollment of students with special needs (some parents are reluctant to send their children to school)
Anticipating the number of children with disabilities enrolled every year
Developing partnerships and cooperation with other government sectors
Designing more training plans and modules for the benefit of inspectors and directors of academic institutions and associations, in partnership with the Mohamed V Foundation for Solidarity and the National Mohamed V Center for the Handicapped
Mobilizing decision makers to support the Ministry of Education in making its projects a success