Morocco’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs announced on Friday, December 25, that it has authorized quranic schools across the country to resume face-to-face classes.
The ministry made the decision after insistent pleas from both students and their parents, a press release said.
Morocco counts 289 quranic schools where students can receive primary, secondary, and higher education.
The institutions provide religious education to students and help them learn the entire Quran by heart in parallel with regular lessons.
Moroccan authorities suspended face-to-face classes in the schools in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the 2020-2021 school year, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs initially announced that in-person learning will conditionally resume in the institutions starting January 2021.
The ministry’s specialized committees ruled that the resumption of face-to-face classes in the planned date is feasible as long as schools follow a strict safety protocol, the press release stated.
The decision to resume face-to-face classes, however, is not compulsory and each quranic school in Morocco has the right to adopt an adequate pedagogical model, depending on local epidemiological situations.
The ministry, meanwhile, will monitor the establishments that decide to reopen their door and will preserve the right to order their closure if they represent a health risk for the population.
Digital lessons are still available on the web platform, www.douroussi.ma, for learners who prefer remote education or are unable to attend classes.
The ministry recalled that it had distributed SIM cards to all students registered in quranic schools across Morocco that would allow them to benefit from free access to the digital platform.
Learners who did not yet receive their SIM cards can still do so by visiting the nearest islamic affairs delegation to them.
The new decision concerns thousands of learners across Morocco. In the 2019-2020 school year, Moroccan quranic schools counted a total of 36,531 learners.
