Rabat – The director of the Regional Academy for Education and Training (AREF) of the Casablanca-Settat region, Abdelmoumen Talib, has announced the allocation of a budget of MAD 2.42 billion dedicated to education infrastructure. The fund aims to improve classroom conditions in precarious neighborhoods where the dropout rate is high.
Talib presented the AREF’s action plan and the 2020 budget at a press conference following the Academy’s Board of Directors meeting on December 24.
The budget includes MAD 512.35 million dedicated to education and MAD 724.25 million for investment.
The Casablanca-Settat AREF is set to construct and equip 334 classrooms in pre-school institutions, dedicating a budget of MAD 80 million. The budget includes the plans for the construction of classrooms (MAD 6.68 million), the execution of the project (MAD 66.8 million), the renovation plans for 124 classrooms (MAD 620,000) and its implementation (MAD 6.2 million).
Also included in the wider project is the construction of two primary schools, five community schools, four high schools, and 450 classrooms.
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Talib noted that an amount of more than MAD 123.88 million is devoted to social support for students in order to drive up catering days to 250 days, improve cooking services, pay for gas, and maintenance of boarding schools.
During his presentation, Talib said that the AREF is giving particular importance to precarious regions with high dropout rates, noting that the Academy is looking for new partnerships to develop and generalize school transport to include regions where the transport service is not provided.
Through the projects, the regional academy aims to generalize preschooling by 2025, improve the basic skills of students in primary education.
