Rabat – Morocco leads in science, technology and innovation capacity in Africa, according to the Africa Capacity Report issued Tuesday, March 28 by the Africa Capacity Building Foundation.
Morocco scored the highest index values, with 71.6 in science, technology, and innovation, followed by Tanzania’s 68.8 and Rwanda’s 68.2, showed the report. The kingdom also topped the list in 2014.
The assessment was based on various components including policy environment, implementation, development results at country level and capacity development results.
The report examined the status of science technology and innovation, scientific and technological initiatives, challenges, and capacity gaps for African countries, regional economic communities, the African Union (AU), and non governmental associations in the pursuit of science, technology innovation, and economic activities.
Education in Morocco: Report Findings
The report also added that Morocco has fostered a “sharp rise” in tertiary education enrollment over the past decade, with 39,381 students enrolled in the “third cycle,” including 19,195 pursuing a Masters degree, 16,054 a PhD degree and 1,720 enrolled in the medical field in 2010.
The Africa Capacity Building Foundation highlighted that the biggest group of scientific researchers in 2010 was in the social and human sciences (40.2 percent), followed by exact and natural sciences (mainly physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and geology), at 32 percent, engineering, sciences, and technology 21.3 percent, medical science 5.4 percent and 1 percent in other disciplines.
However, it explained that “Morocco needs to keep increasing the number of private sector researchers. It should also expand human resources and the number of researchers in science, engineering, and technology fields to correct the bias to social fields.”
