Education Reform: Towards a review of school curricula

During his speech at the opening of the session, Monday, January 09, the president of the Higher Council for Education, Habib Malki immediately defined the course: “overcome the challenges that hinder the development of the education sector, the implementation of school programs adapted to the requirements of development, the teaching of languages, the improvement of the national offer in terms of vocational training”. These, he said, are the objectives that are among the priorities of the Council during its second mandate”, stressing that this collective challenge requires the commitment of all stakeholders.

He also underlined that “any vision of reform should not be seen as circumstantial or transitory, but should rather be carried out on the basis of a process, imbued with continuity and sustainability for generations to come”, adding that the challenges facing the education system require commitment and synergy between all stakeholders.

The President of the Council announced, at the same time, the intention to introduce partial amendments to the law governing the Higher Council for Education and Training, related to Article 34 relating to the Standing Committees, and to Article 43 relating to their field of action, in order to make up for the absence of certain major questions falling within their competence.

There is, he continued, the imperative to value the institutional accumulation, invest in the possibilities of improving the performance of the committees, develop their working mechanism, improve their areas of intervention and give them all the means of efficiency and success.

In this way, they will be able to give a strong impetus to their work and fulfill their roles to the best of their ability, by availing themselves of a relevant and effective organizational framework. This draft partial amendment proposed by Habib Malki should be submitted for deliberation and approval.

During the meeting, a participant highlighted the roadmap (2022-2026), the implementation of which is subject to time constraints. According to her, the temporal challenge could have a political connotation. Morocco expects its first results in 2026, for her, it would be impossible for the results to be felt by this deadline.

In addition, she pointed the finger at the Moroccan public school which needs a “deep overhaul”, because of the current modules which have not been changed since 2002, starting from her experience for having been part of the members of the Special Education-Training Commission (COSEF) at the beginning of the first years of the current century.

She recommended in this way to Habib Malki, to carry out a profound overhaul of the modules, instead of implementing reforms, because of the radical changes that have taken place in the world since 2002. “We no longer live in the same world than in 2002,” she said.

Speaking, Chakib Benmoussa recognized the relevance of his remarks, indicating that the results of the 2022-2026 roadmap can only be felt beyond 2026, explaining however that it revolves around objectives whose results can be periodically assessed.

The Minister further clarified that the roadmap is indeed facing temporal challenges, as its realization throughout the predefined period, exceeds the mandate of the current government. “It is for this reason that we have
decided to launch these discussions with the partners within this Council. This will ensure the continuity of the reform, because it is not the minister alone who must reform the ecosystem,” he said.

In the same vein, the supervising minister indicated that, given the importance of the secondary cycle which allows the student to acquire the necessary bases, it was decided to launch an operation to revise all the methodological programs and pedagogical aspects of the secondary cycle, more particularly the college programs. In order to assess the achievements of pupils, and therefore improve their level of learning, schools will proceed at the end of each cycle to the evaluation of the pupil’s knowledge.

Reacting to certain comments on the place of languages ​​in the Roadmap for Education Reform 2022-2025, in particular the Amazigh language, Benmoussa said that his department is working, in collaboration with a Special Commission, on the necessary methodologies. for the teaching of this language, especially since the aspect of language learning occupies a crucial place in the desired reform. “Our objective is to integrate the teaching of the Amazigh language in the primary cycle before moving on to secondary school”, he specified, adding: “This obviously implies continuous monitoring with the professional dropouts in the field” .

Morocco will need a sociological study to optimize the results of the reforms carried out Benmoussa specified that with regard to the technological development that the world is experiencing, and the changes that take place on a recurring basis, the education reforms in the world cannot be optimized to perfection. This is valid for the whole world and not only in Morocco.

During this session, Benmoussa insisted on the pivotal period that Moroccan public education is experiencing, mentioning the need to make a sociological study of Moroccan society. “It will help us better understand the implementation of our ideas that we agree that they are suitable for reform, but they may fail because they may be incompatible with the reality of our society”, he let know.

According to him, there is a risk of seeing the actors fail in the exercise of their duty by implementing the reforms undertaken by the supervisory authority, in discordance with the realities of Moroccan society, with regard to several factors, such as the history of the society and its customs, which could condemn these reforms to being simple constructions without real impact.