Education Minister details plan to compensate for lost school time

A week after revealing the broad outlines, the Minister of National Education, Preschool and Sports, Chakib Benmoussa, detailed on Monday January 8 the integrated national plan to counter the loss of school time.

Responding to questions from MPs during the weekly session in the House of Representatives, Chakib Benmoussa stressed that, in light of the disruptions observed in several educational establishments, the Ministry had taken significant measures to ensure consistency between the implementation of programs, course content, and the remaining teaching period for this year.

“The Ministry has drawn up a national plan for the management of school time and the pedagogical organization of learning, supervised by the educational team and a number of inspectors”, he revealed.

According to the Minister, this plan is based on three fundamental principles. The first emphasizes the importance of essential content, skills and pedagogical orientations, specifically targeted for each level of study. The second axis aims to ensure equal opportunities for all students, whether in the public or private sector, with particular attention paid to accreditation levels. Finally, the third axis aims to ensure a smooth implementation process, adapted to students’ learning pace.

“In this context, five measures have been deployed to optimize the management of school time. Firstly, a one-week extension of the current school year has been implemented for all educational streams. It’s important to note that the precise determination of the period of this extension is subject to various constraints, including the overriding consideration of the dates of competitive entrance examinations to national and international higher education establishments and institutes”, explained Benmoussa.

He added: “The second measure aims to adapt curricula at all levels of education in order to complete courses by rationalizing and reducing scheduled hours with specific proportions, as well as a qualitative adaptation of pedagogical content to target key skills”.

As far as primary education is concerned, the head of the department said that the focus would be on achieving fundamental skills and objectives linked to subsequent skills. In addition, an approach aimed at grouping two sessions linked to a specific lesson into a single session will be adopted, enabling learning time to be optimized by consolidating similar and complementary lessons.

For the secondary cycle, initiatives will be undertaken to reduce the length of certain teaching units, integrate cognitive teaching units, streamline courses devoted to assessment and portfolio completion, and introduce practical methodological courses.

For Benmoussa, these adjustments are designed to make effective use of these practical courses in the completion of teaching units, and to reinforce the consolidation of acquired skills. “The aim is to implement a policy based on reduction, simplification and flexibility, in order to control and optimize study time”, he asserted.

In addition, the third initiative aims to strengthen the pedagogical support system in order to consolidate students’ knowledge, emphasizing core subjects for non-accredited years. Teachers will also be able to offer educational support courses during the mid-year vacations, as well as evenings and weekends, for those who so wish, the official continued.

As for the fourth measure, this involves revising the planning of national examinations and ongoing assessments, by linking assessment situations to completed programs. In addition, the dates of national and regional examinations have been shifted by one week, with a revision of the number of ongoing assessments, whether in the first or second session.

The fifth initiative focuses on pedagogical efficiency in the implementation process, by granting local teaching teams the necessary authorizations to adopt a suitable pedagogical policy and exploit the various pedagogical options available. This takes into account the specific pedagogical and tactical criteria applicable in the curriculum, tailored to each individual school.