We were treated to a discussion about the history of education in Morocco in a variety of contexts. Tradition is important and yet the idea of including the "modern" to "keep up with the world". One of the challenges faced includes language of instruction. Additional challenges discussed included new technologies, economic factors, teacher training, instruction during Covid, educating good citizens (and what does this mean). I was fascinated by the point that instruction was delivered by television for some! According to Meriem, historically, the government created a comprehensive reform program and adopted the National Education and Training Charter in 1999, declaring 2000 to 2009 the "decade for education" establishing such a national priority. Due to delays an Education Emergency Plan was established in 2009 to continue with the reform process. My question of interest did focus on education - women in particular. My original focus was on gender equality. This stemmed from my own school's issue (science-based) with how few young women took the upper level science/math courses limiting their opportunities after high school in the STEM fields. In our school, we saw and had a student address the low enrollment rates of girls in our higher level science and math classes in her graduation speech a few years back. I always think about that speech in that it changes the trajectory of what students/girls will study/can study later - what opportunities are afforded or lost. I wanted to look at something similar. Meriem mentioned a gender disparity at all levels in the education system and I saw that in the data that I reviewed prior to coming to Morocco - the low literacy rates for girls as well as the low SES students. I thought that these two things could also translate to the USA and who has access to what. However, I also wanted to be understanding of the culture/cultural differences. So, I settled on: How does socioeconomic status and gender impact access to education and opportunities in society as adults? Our group, prior to leaving, had an on-line discussion about how much would we be able to really get in regard to information regarding what we were interested in investigating without the site portion of our visit. Over the course of the time in Morocco - from the variety of people we spoke with and places we visited - I did get messages about women and education and their opportunities. Sometimes, I felt they were a bit mixed. I believe this may have to do with the growing pains of the nation - the mixture of the traditional and modern that was brought up before.
These mixed messages came at me time and again. We were told that women should not frequent a cafe and I did see this walking near the hotel. There were numerous cafes where men only were seated drinking and conversing. However, I did find myself one quiet afternoon at a more modern cafe in which women were eating, smoking, and reading. I spoke with a young woman who was lunching alone. She frequented the cafe often as it was close to her place of employment; a natural act.
A huge disparity for girls (and even boys) seems to be between those who live in rural versus urban areas. Although educating girls is encouraged by the state and men and women have the same rights it was noted that some conservative forces are against it. As infrastructure has improved, so have some of the opportunities afforded to those in the rural areas for education. However, even we saw the differences between the schools in the city and Ouled Soltana, the public primary rural school which so reminded me of the school I taught in while I served in the Peace Corps in the rural countryside of Ecuador.
In our visit to the Ministry of Education, we met with the Supervisor of International Education who was a former high school science teacher indicated that schools are the institutions of the state and transmit human heritage. They train students for future life, educating kids of the norms and values of society. In Morocco's case these are developing/changing quickly. In our debriefing, one of the Fellows, Christine stated, "The power and voice of women is much stronger than we had imagined." I appreciated this comment so much. From my short time in Morocco, I had not gained the insight that I had hoped regarding my original question, but - as I tell my students, that is okay. I had more questions and thoughts regarding the subject - more to go on in the future.
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