Hi everyone! I am currently reporting from the library of the teacher training center where our crew is lodging in Rabat, Morocco. I am sitting next to my compatriot in arms, Meaghan, who is blogging away furiously at my side. I was taking a much overdue shower when she started, so I am going to assume that she has already described in vivid detail the not-so-sordid details of our plane ride from JFK to Casablanca, the bus that shuttled us to our gorgeous lodgings in Rabat, the monstrous three course behemoth that was destined to become our first Moroccan meal, our bleary-eyed but no less engaging meetings at the Ministry of Education (MoE), silly pictures in front of colorful mosaics, our precious mint tea pick-me-up, and stuffing our faces with McDonald’s tajine, from the Megamall food court. If not… well, at the very least, she took more pictures than me.
Most of our colleagues are already tucked in bed trying to readjust their circadian rhythms, so I just wanted to provide a brief reflection of some of the more salient themes that I noticed before heading upstairs myself. Although we were all exhausted from the overnight flight, everybody was excited and eager to greet our hosts at the Ministry. Today, we met with representatives from the Department of Cooperation; the Department of Communication; and the Department of Strategy, Planning, and Statistics. The representatives from the MoE were nothing short of gracious and surprisingly candid about the current state of their education system. We learned this afternoon that we had arrived during an atypical moment of massive transition. As of yesterday, January 4, a new Minister of Education took office. Additionally, on a more macro-level, Morocco has also been affected by the global events such as Arab Spring and the financial crisis. As such, the administrators reported having to tread lightly in order to navigate a tumultuous and unpredictable political environment, despite aspiring to push through an ambitious reform plan known as “Programme d’Urgence” or the “Emergency Plan.”
Despite these difficult conditions, I was immediately struck by the consistency of the message across the various departments. In both of the meetings, the directors acknowledged some of the real challenges and dire needs of the education system. Nonetheless, there seemed to be an air of optimism and anticipation that seemed to pervade underneath the surface. Given the relative instability and newness of some of the proposed reforms, the officials seemed to see a great opportunity for real progress as well. Each of the representatives seemed particularly proud of the sheer volume and scope of their recent reform plan, which is comprised of 26 projects, subdivided into 136 subprojects, and hiring 2800 project managers alone. Although it was never stated explicitly, the fact that there were so many active projects underway were a great source of accomplishments, as prior to the Emergency Plan, any “reform” lived more in the realm of ideas than real world implementation.
There seemed to be consensus that the “dysfunction” in Moroccan Education was not necessarily negligence or failure to recognize the problems, whether they be dropout, attrition, or illiteracy. Rather, there were strategies and plans in place to remedy them – the flaw lied in the actual implementation stage. One example that kept recurring was the question of quality versus quantity. Most of the officials agreed that past administrations had effectively reduced problems of educational access. Across all fronts (building schools, providing computers, training teachers, etc), they believed that their efforts to increase capacity have been effective. Although they acknowledged that issues such as transportation and poverty continue to affect access, on balance, the implementation of public education has been relatively successful. That said, just because education is available doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. For this reason, the current administration is putting quality on the top of its agenda.
In the few hours that we spent at the Ministry, we encountered the same paradigm of access vs. quality over and over. One of the most memorable lessons of IEP has been the scandal of Greg Mortenson his Three Cups of Tea. Namely, the creation of several “schools” in Afghanistan, that in actuality, were little more than empty buildings that served more goats than students. As we discussed this phenomenon in class, countless classmates contributed similar examples in which new schools were built in developing countries, but they failed to produce any meaningful educational outcomes due to lack of trained or qualified teachers, oversight, commitment to gender equity, and a host of other essential criteria. Obviously, these are huge ideas that deserve thoughtful reflection, and most of us were probably too exhausted to process the significance of them. For example, absently, I thought about the current America infatuation with increasing access through “school choice” such as vouchers or charter systems. Obviously, this claim requires more substantial development which I don’t have the energy to do now, but needless to say, this mission is shaping up to provide all sorts of insight and nuggets of wisdom to enrich our classroom experience.
Can’t wait to see what mindblowing gems we'll unearth tomorrow!
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