Rabat – Around 300 000 people are set to benefit from literacy programs in mosques during the fiscal year 2021-2022 according to data provided by the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs on Friday October 15.
In 2001, the Moroccan government implemented a national strategy aiming to fight against illiteracy. The strategy introduced classes in many mosques throughout the country.
The courses were led by 7,959 supervisors, accompanied by 1,188 educational coordinators and advisers, and 401 educational trainers.
“During the period from 2000 to 2021, 3 911 384 people were able to benefit from the literacy courses provided in the mosques of Morocco,” stated the ministry in a report listing the actions taken within the national program in 2021, and those set to be carried out in 2022.
For the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the ministry said enrollments in levels I and II of the program totaled 283,758 in 6,677 mosques across the country.
The ministry plans to increase the number of supervisors to reach 10,000, in order to improve the coverage rate in rural areas by 5%, as well as to extend the targeted categories to include more men in the literacy project.
“In 2020, out of a total of 3.6 million beneficiaries of Morocco’s literacy program, about 70% are women. Women are more motivated than men to attend literacy classes,” said Ahmed Taoufiq, the minister of Islamic affairs, during a session in the House of Representatives in January 2021.
The objective of the program is to increase the integration rate between levels I and II, in order to reach a percentage of 65% of recipients accessing the next level, which will mark a growth of 25%, according to the same source.
Following the closing off of mosques due to the health crisis in 2020, literacy tutors remained in contact with their pupils through smartphone applications and continued to supervise their learning. Literacy classes also became available on the Assadissa (the Sixth) television channel and on the internet.
This year, the ministry will be taking on new teaching methods for level II, all the while keeping the options of remote learning courses through television and the internet.
In addition, the program will be establishing a certification system, as well as opening access to other circuits in the national education system.
