STM School: First STEM Education School in Morocco to Open in Fez

Rabat – Fez will host STM School, Morocco’s first education facility that introduces the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) pedagogical approach.

The STM School in Fez will open admission registration in March 2022 and will begin its activities in the 2022/2023 academic year, starting in September.

Nurturing curiosity and fostering creativity

The school seeks to focus on science education in a tri-linguistic setting, with English at the heart of the program.

The school also aims to introduce an exclusively progressive program in line with Morocco’s education system, with modern teaching mechanisms bringing science to the forefront of courses and classes.

The education facility will also offer science-focused activities aimed at developing scientific skills such as curiosity, innovation, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

 

 

 

 

 

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The STM school also plans to create a reassuring environment with a digitalized infrastructure, allowing parents to “closely monitor” their children’s progress.

The digitized program will also facilitate communication between parents and the school management.

In particular, the school said in a statement, the goal of such an establishment is to offer “forward-thinking” learning programs primarily tailored to  “broaden the future horizons of students.”

The school will include all four first stages in students’ education, including pre-school, middle school, secondary school, and high school.

Practice-based teaching

Mohammed Bennis, director of STM School said: “We wanted to establish a school that would enhance the Moroccan educational program and remedy its shortcomings. A science-based educational approach from the students’ early ages has become the norm in most Western countries. However, the Moroccan curriculum relies on mostly theoretical concepts with minimum real-life applications and experiments, making the teaching methods mostly obsolete.” 

He added: “STM School’s goal, put simply, is to nurture the students’ curiosity to understand the world around them through science, to bolster the students’ academic skills, life skills, and mental habits enabling them to thrive in any field. STM School offers a trilingual program where English has the same weight and importance as French and Arabic. At STM School, we believe that STEM education, combined with English, is the secret combination for a bright future full of opportunities for students.”

The human capital of Fez’s first STEM school will include educators and a staff with over 20 years of experience in education.

Away from traditional sciences and liberal art classes, the school will also be introducing extracurricular activities adapted to each student’s needs, including physical, mental, artistic, social activities, and summer camps.

In addition, STM will offer an entertaining and creativity-fostering summer program that will help students during the sunny season.

Benefits of STEM education

Several international organizations and education reports have long emphasized the importance of STEM education.

According to the website Study in the USA, “STEM education gives people skills that make them more employable and ready to meet the current labor demand.” 

Most experts and education-based organizations and websites agree that a STEM-based approach to children’s early education boosts creativity and critical thinking among students.

According to the STEM Education Journal, researchers have long emphasized that STEM education is “effective in improving students’ learning outcomes, such as academic learning achievement, student motivation, attitude, problem-solving skills.”

The journal stresses that this approach has been applicable for over two decades. In the early days of its application in the 90s, the method was known under the name of  SMET, which stood for science, mathematics, engineering, technology.

Experts from different countries, particularly the US, created the STEM approach, which grew after the US government announced plans to boost education in STEM in 2009.