Rachid Belmokhtar
In Northern Morocco, in the city of Rabal, National Education Administer Rachid Belmokhtar and the US Ambassador to Rabat, Dwight L. Bush S., were formally congratulated Wednesday, the 21st of May for having seen positive results for the ITQAN program after 57 months (launched in 2009). This program, from the American Agency for International Development (USAID), seeks to increase attention towards the need for higher quality education while introducing new methods of teaching. It also wishes to increase the success of students while decreasing attrition.
“It was a very successful operation which helped students and teachers alike and we want to expand the range of the Ministry with this vision of higher quality education throughout.” – M. Belmokhtar
USAID experts noted that the students who partook in this program gave overall higher results within any given teaching establishments.
The US Ambassador who had accompanied the Minister said that it was an honor to be able to celebrate the results of such an important initiative. New technologies were introduced and this had innovated certain teaching strategies that have proven helpful for students and educators. One specifically noted strategy is e-learning.
“It’s a way to give students of Morocco access to a better education which will give them incentive to give back to society.” – Bush S.
Ms. Dana Mansuri, the Mission Director of USAID in Morocco, notes that even under difficulties in the process with this reform, she wants to expand ITQAN and work with the Minister for schools with more diverse age groups, specifically in language programs.
According to USAID, throughout the program teachers saw an increase in 19.2% in scores with a 6.55% reduction in dropout rates. There will be more than 6,000 new teachers at the high school level and 764 professors in the center regions using these new modern techniques. The students of the ITQAN helped roughly 10,491 students succeed in these roles that will help them soon give back to their communities. The program was put into place by Creative Associates International, the international foundation for youth at the University of Al Akhazayn of Ifrane.