Court of Auditors to Evaluate Remote Learning in Moroccan Universities

Rabat – Morocco’s Court of Auditors has launched a questionnaire for university students to assess remote learning in higher education. As part of its annual program, the court intends to evaluate the prospects for the development of the new teaching method implemented during the COVID-19 crisis.

Titled “Evaluation of Remote Higher Education,” the purpose of the questionnaire is to evaluate actions taken by the ministerial sector in charge of higher education in the field of distance learning in local universities, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students enrolled in universities are asked to fill out the survey leaving feedback regarding the second semester of the 2019-2020 academic year to the second semester of the 2020-2021 academic year.

The assessment also seeks to see “the prospects for developing remote education, which, in accordance with the laws governing the [education] sector, is a complement to face-to-face teaching,” according to a statement from the Court of Auditors.

The same source explained that the questionnaire takes into account “maintaining the confidentiality of the answers, which will be completely anonymous,” noting that “the answers will only be used as part of the evaluation task.”

After Morocco declared a state of emergency in March 2020, schools and all facilities across the country shut their doors as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the virus.

Since then, online classes became the new ‘norm’ as the government has deployed several options such as paper-based take-home materials for parents/students, as well as television, radio, and online learning platforms to boost its distance learning strategy for all education levels.

While some were in favor of the new learning methods, many students have experienced difficulties due to constant struggles with internet problems and a lack of interactions with instructors.

A recent report from the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF revealed that in times of the COVID pandemic, learning poverty has increased in low- and middle-income countries. The organizations identify learning poverty as “Learning poverty means being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10.”

Learning poverty in Morocco among children aged 10 has reached 65.8% overall, 61.3% for girls, and 70.1% for boys, the report noted.

The learning poverty severity in the country stands at 11.6%, the third-highest in the MENA region after Egypt (12.3%) and Yemen (44.2%).