By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 04/10/07
 [Sarah Touahri] The first years of a child's life have a great affect on later success in school. |
Moroccans are enrolling more children than ever into pre-school education programmes. Even parents from the underprivileged sectors of society are growing more aware of the importance of this education and try, despite their limited means, to enrol their children in private establishments. In rural communities, however, such institutions are largely lacking.
According to managers and owners of pre-school establishments, this branch of teaching requires a great deal of development before it can reach its rightful place. The latest figures, published in 2005 by the High Commission on Planning, indicate that 740,511 children under the age of six, or half of all pre-school age students, study in pre-schools. Nearly all of those who attend modern pre-schools live in major cities. Islamic pre-school education remains popular however, with 88.4% of the children in the age group in attendance throughout the country.
According to the Directorate of Co-operation and Private Education within the Ministry of National Education, the pre-school sector lags far behind the objectives laid out in the national education and training charter, particularly those concerning schooling for girls.
According to Rahim Anouloufe, who manages a pre-school in Rabat, there are persistent flaws in this educational provision: it is not accessible to all, there is no official supervision of teachers, there are contradictions in the perceived objectives of such teaching and there is a lack of ongoing training for pre-school staff.
The National Education Ministry has called for international co-operation and input from civil society, as well as the direct involvement of local communities in the expansion of pre-school education. This will involve devoting part of the income of provincial councils and local authorities to fund pre-school education. On the international level, the Moroccan government hopes to obtain aid for education.
Teacher Abbas Farnatchou told Magharebia that the first few years of a child's life have a great affect on a student's success in school. He added that early teaching, such as pre-schooling, opens up linguistic pathways for a child, contributes to reducing school drop-out rates and child labour, and helps to ground the child in his or her culture, "Hence the importance of involving the state and bringing [pre-school education] into state schools."
Until now, pre-school education has been essentially confined to the private sector. There are very few state schools which offer nursery classes. According to the education ministry, priority goes to the betterment of primary education. Only when this has happened can pre-school and primary education be brought together to represent a coherent educational foundation.
Until pre-school education becomes widely available in state schools, many parents, because of their low incomes, are suffering to stump up the price of kindergarten classes. "I know pre-school education is important in the life of a human being," said Abderrahim Maghloufi, a mechanic. "That's why I’m struggling to pay 300 dirhams every month for my daughter's school, even though I don’t have the funds."