Naji: Morocco among the lowest scorers in reading assessments

Not unlike previous international assessments, Moroccan students ranked remarkably low in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study “PIRLS 2021” for students at primary fourth-grade level.

In an interview with Hespress, educational expert Abdennasser Naji, President of the “Moroccan Association for Improving the Quality of Education” (Akan), and a former member of the Supreme Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research, explains his view on the results the Moroccan students received, and the reasons the Kingdom’s educational reform plans and programs never succeed.

-What is your assessment of the results achieved by Moroccan students in the “PIRLS” study?

The results achieved are consistent with the well-known usual results Moroccan students achieve in various assessments, and reflect low academic achievement. The percentage of students of poor reading competency ranges between 60% to 70%, as confirmed by the study.

Although there is a slight progress when compared to the 2016 assessment, Morocco still falls behind in the ranking compared to other countries.

It is noteworthy that the 2021 assessment came after the Covid pandemic, and its results confirmed no negative impact on education. While 21 countries fell in rankings for this reason, only three countries, Morocco included, advanced.

Morocco did not take the test during the period in which it was conducted(April-May), but at the start of the next academic year(2021-2022), meaning that the students involved in the test had moved to the fifth primary level, and this may explain the slight progress in the results.

Another notable fact is that girls were ahead of boys in the literacy assessment scores. This structured data is getting more prominent, and calls for efforts in motivating males to study more.

-Regarding this point, how do you explain the higher female scores in the results?

We can attribute the matter to several factors, the first of which is the general trend in educational policy and public policies in recent decades. They have leaned towards achieving positive discrimination in favor of females, causing girls to have more in studying than boys.

The psychological aspect also plays a major role. Boys, in the Moroccan social milieu, are more present in the outer sphere (the street) compared to girls, and this causes them to have more distractions.

I believe being away from the outer social sphere helps girls focus more on their studies, and thus achieve better results compared to boys.

-The Moroccan educational and training system has undergone several reforms, yet the results are far from satisfactory. How can this be explained?

There are several reasons, the first of which is the lack of a solid reform method. There is also the multiplicity of reforms combined with a lack of continuity. We start a reform and after a period we abandon it for a new one, without evaluating previous reforms to monitor the gaps that led to their failure.

Today we stand at a historic juncture following the issued strategic vision for reform 2015-2030, because the framework law related to its implementation is binding on the political actors, and there should be no reforms except within the framework of this law. However, the government marginalized the framework law, and made the new development model its primary reference. Possibly because the current minister is the head of the committee that drafted the model.

Although there are no contradictions or conflicts between the new development model and the strategic vision of reform 2015-2030, the latter remains more comprehensive and accurate. Not making it the primary reference for the education and training system reform would lead, once again, to wrong approaches.

Another is the weak pace of implementing the reform. For example, the National Charter for Education and Training had barely reached 60% implementation of its contents, according to an assessment by the Supreme Council for Education, Training, and Scientific Research in 2014.

Perhaps the National Charter for Education and Training was not fully implemented, because it was not binding. But it is unacceptable that the Strategic Vision 2015-2030 was not implemented when its framework law, as I mentioned earlier, is binding.

There is also the issue of poor governance. If we want to reform this vital sector, the participatory approach must be among the basic components of reform. While we note the lack of involvement from sectors, bodies and actors who are directly concerned with the implementation of reform, primarily the teachers, whom we ask to implement matters that they may not be aware of because they were not involved in the process of drafting it.

It is also of utmost importance to link responsibility to accountability, and evaluating the implemented reforms, provided that officials who did not shoulder their responsibilities as required should be held accountable, and officials who performed their task properly should be rewarded.

-In light of the current situation, is it not likely that the Strategic Vision 2015-2030 will meet the fate of the National Pact?

Among the measures that the strategic vision came up with, was the regular evaluation of its implementation. The Supreme Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research made an evaluation in 2018, that is, three years after the start of the implementation of the strategic vision, and stated that there was a delay in implementing the reform. The framework law related to the implementation of the strategic vision was delayed, and was not issued until 2019.

In the year 2020, we at the Moroccan Association for the Improvement of the Quality of Education “Akan”, evaluated the implementation of the strategic vision 2015-2030, and reached the conclusion that the percentage of implementation of what was stated in the vision was within the range of 65%.

Two years later, the current government took seat and did not heed the framework law, which is supposed to be transformed into legislative and regulatory texts, otherwise it will not be implemented. It is noticeable that so far the government has not issued any legislative or regulatory text, and the implementation tracking committee stipulated in the framework law has yet to hold any meetings.

The road map for the education program implementation was issued belatedly. We had to wait six months after its first non-detailed edition; This is a contributing factor to the delay in reform.

There are initiatives launched by the government that are expected to bear fruit, such as caring for teachers, their status and training, caring for educational institutions, and caring for the quality of learning through individual tracking and regular evaluation of the student. exceeds 75% . However, if the reform proceeds at the current pace, the rate of implementation of the strategic vision within the specified period, i.e.  by 2030, will not exceed 75%.

This piece was translated from Hespress AR by Hiba Ariche