Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
March 8 , 2014

Video: Fight for women’s rights continues in Morocco

In 2004, Morocco’s women took to the streets to demand greater recognition of their rights under the country’s law. It is a battle they won, with the government reforming the country’s family code, known as Mudawana, to significantly improve the status of women.

But ten years later, the fight for gender equality is far from over, with issues such as polygamy, the right to abortion and access to education among the top concerns for the country’s feminist activists.

In celebration of International Women’s Day this Saturday, FRANCE 24 met with some of those continuing the battle for women’s rights in Morocco.

http://www.france24.com/en/20140308-video-international-womens-day-fight-women-rights-continues-morocco/#./?&_suid=139429712908407247215386642032
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Students travel to Morocco for service and educational trip on Jan 21, 2014
by Katie Fuselier

As the majority of Vanderbilt’s campus dispersed to return home for the holidays, 11 students and one faculty advisor departed with a completely different objective: to spend 10 days on a service learning project in Morocco.  Sponsored by the Office of Active Citizenship and Service, Morocco Winter Break allowed its participants to combine cultural education and service in Rabat, a city in the North African country. 

Sherif Barsoum, director of International Student and Scholar Services and site leader for the trip, explained that the students on the trip spent their mornings in lectures about Moroccan politics and culture, with topics ranging from perspectives on gender to a cooking demonstration. Because students were not required to study any particular discipline at Vanderbilt like Arabic or Islamic Studies, the lectures were meant to provide context and background for the experiences of the trip.

The students then applied their classroom learning to everyday life, with tours to the city of Marrakesh, with its large market, and to a small fishing village, Essaouira. They were challenged to interact with merchants and locals as authentically as possible despite the language barrier. 

“The market was crazy,” said Laura Silliman, a senior participant on the trip. “There were tons and tons of people selling the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen: beautiful rugs, and there are just these beautiful doors everywhere, beautiful woodwork, plates, bowls. They really take pride in their handiwork, and it’s beautiful.”

While studying Moroccan culture, the trip’s participants were also able to undertake a number of service activities. Through a project with the Cross-Cultural Center for Learning, an institution based in Rabat with which OACS planned the trip, the students helped teach English to high school graduates looking for employment in the service industry, a field with a high demand for English-speakers. The 11 Vanderbilt participants worked with more than 100 Moroccan students split into various classes. 

Silliman explained that the experience was difficult because no student on the trip had a working knowledge of Arabic, but some of the elementary education majors had been trained in teaching basic English. She noted the enthusiasm of the Moroccan students, however, as a memorable aspect of her experience. “They were so enthusiastic and eager, always volunteering to come up to the front,” Silliman said. “The girls volunteered more than the guys, which, considering the gender dynamic in the country, is really amazing. There’s really an eagerness to learn.” 

The participants also visited the country’s Amnesty International headquarters and spoke with local employees about the work these individuals do in the region. After the discussion, each student was given the opportunity to blog for the organization. 

Silliman was particularly inspired by Amnesty’s focus on women’s rights. “Morocco has really made improvements as far as abiding by the rights of women,” she said, “but obviously, these organizations say there’s still a lot to be done regarding family law and how women are perceived.”

The students also had the opportunity to visit the National Council on Human Rights, spend time at a local nursing home and exhibit their artistic sides when they spent one day of their trip painting the walls of a health clinic for children. “I think there was a really good balance between service and education, and it was beneficial that we did different kinds of service,” Silliman said regarding the trip. 

Clive Mentzel, director of OACS, spoke to the situation the Morocco trip attempted to create for its participants.  “OACS is willing to partner with authentic, local service providers who can give our students the most authentic and direct access to real service needs on the ground, real cultural experiences and just a genuine immersion in the country while they’re there,” Mentzel said. 

Barsoum also expanded on the value of participating in a trip like Morocco Winter Break.  “Being at Vanderbilt, it’s so easy for us to go to Europe, and most of the students at Vanderbilt are familiar with or have been there, but it’s not as easy or accessible to go to an Arab country,” he said. “I think it’s crucial and important in the day and age we live in to explore more than Western culture and expand our parameters. That’s why we’re doing these programs.” http://www.insidevandy.com/news/article_feefcba4-8329-11e3-990b-001a4bcf6878.html
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Opinion: The defaulting educational system in Morocco
Youness Chahdi on Sep, 14, 2013.

September, the Monday of the year, is back again. As each and every year, parents become busy purchasing school supplies, enrolling their children, and hoping for better results than those of the bygone year.  The years are systematically repeating themselves. Nothing has really changed except the Moroccan educational system, which has become nothing but a scared chameleon hiding in colorful jungle plants.

Since 1999 the Moroccan government has been hopelessly trying to implement an efficient apprenticeship program to outline the multiple problems that exist in the educational system of Morocco. In particular, from 1999 to 2008 the government had been adopting the National Education and Training Charter (CNEF), to later replace it with the Education Emergency Plan (EEP) spanning the 2009- 2012 period, to recently switch to the Education Action Plan (EAP) which is supposed to be running from 2013 to 2016, according to the World Bank.

The latter happen to be different programs that bear different names but remain incomprehensible to most Moroccan students. Though parents are pretty much sure about the uselessness of such unsuccessful programs, they are the result of unstable government policies.

“The Road Not Traveled – Education Reform in the MENA” is a report about education made available by the Word Bank on February 4, 2008. The study ranks Morocco 11 th among the 14 countries of the Middle East and North Africa region (Tunisia and Algeria ranked 3 rd and 8 th respectively). Not only does the report reflect the fruitlessness of such abortive programs adopted by the Moroccan government but also the latter’s incompetence in keeping up with the needs of both students and teachers.

Recently, the UNESCO acknowledges the outstanding efforts of Moroccans in term of combating illiteracy. A statistical survey confirms the noticeable decline in illiteracy rates, which have dropped from 43% in 2004 to 28% in 2012, affirming that more than 6 million people have so far benefited from literacy programs all over the country. The UNESCO has also called upon the improvement of educational standards.

Quality has become no more than a “once upon a time” tale. The school programs provided by the ministry of education only promote the importance of memory capacity and ignore the significance of enhancing intellectual abilities. Intellectual awareness and critical thinking are never welcome in Moroccan classrooms. Brutality, suppression and derogate are among the lengthy list of rooted barriers that students face on a daily basis.

Students consider that general knowledge and diverse interests are superfluous since the final exam is what counts the most. Marks are the only evaluative criteria followed by the teachers in a country where exam results are what determine students’ futures and academic paths and not their fields of interests.

A high school teacher briefs to The Tunis Time the opening word of the institute director during the annual gathering on the first day of school. “This year things are going to be different, there is no way I will modify any of your timetables. I know that most of you work in private schools and work extra-hours at night. You have the right to do so; but, we won’t adapt the school’s timetables to yours… The institute results are gradually declining. The school is losing its eminence to the private sector which you made your priority. School glories are at stake.”

According to the institute director, the teachers are not part of the problem, they are the problem itself. The accusation is out in the open, though no deterrent actions have been taken. In defense, the high school teacher justifies the unsatisfactory results by the lamentable teaching conditions. Classes are jam-packed with students. This year, the students’ number ranges between 48 and 50 per class. The basic teaching equipment is not provided. At times, students are forced to sit three in a desk made for two. Over and above, the teaching hours are in constant increase, while the total hour volume of each subject is in parallel decrease.

No one denies that one of the biggest problems that the educational system in Morocco faces is the lack of ethics, and concern with personal gain on the expense of generations and generations. Most Moroccan teachers do not seem to realize the crucial responsibility they hold towards their students. Passing knowledge on, helping student outs, guiding and supervising seem to be their last concern. Extra-paid hours are henceforth their number- one goal. The absence of restraining laws against the defaulting teachers will only encourage such dishonest behaviors.

Many people are calling to prohibit public school teachers from working within the private sector. A bold decision made by Mr. El Ouafa, Moroccan mister of education, was issued on September 4, 2012. A decree of the ministry of education prohibiting public school teachers from working in private institutions was a calamity for both directors and other proponents of private schools who are not accustomed to this kind of decisions. Unfortunately, although it was official, the decision was nothing but a bluff. The Showdown revealed that the private sector syndicate protested against the ministerial decision. It was called off to the heart content of the business owners. In no time, things got back on track.

While elsewhere education is not only a priority but a national obsession, education in this country has become nothing but a profitable industry. An industry that first started nearly a decade ago and has not stopped gaining ground ever since. The private sector is taking advantage of the trustworthiness of public education unpityingly, and without the merest restriction it charges families with the most expensive of fees. Nowadays, not only middle class and rich families opt for private schools but even families with very limited incomes. Only the poorest parents are still willing to send their children to public schools.

To understand the essence of this growing phenomenon, one should be aware of the method the final score of the baccalaureate exam is calculated. The Moroccan baccalaureate starts a year prior to the baccalaureate exam itself. At the end of that year, students are summoned to sit for a regional exam (examen regional) which counts of 25% of the total baccalaureate score. In addition to the said 25% comes another 25% of the regular continuous assessment (Évaluation continue). Finally comes the 50% of the baccalaureate national exam (examen national). These three components are what come between students and bright academic futures. Continuous assessment exams are openly sold in private schools. Once there, some students do not need to worry about the quarter of the score.

Students will continue to suffer as long as greed is the main engine of the Moroccan educational system. Officials responsible of the deterioration of the educational system in Morocco should have the courage to admit their incapacity to solve the problems and step down so that more capable others will take on. Though, it seems that the wind of change is blowing elsewhere.

Opinion: The defaulting educational system in Morocco (Part2) Youness Chahdi on Mar, 7, 2014.

Chokingly a close portrayal of many twenty-one century’s Moroccan universities is a maximum-security penitentiary. Where classrooms are prison cells squired by heavy armed well-trained coldhearted guards who respond to a higher authority, the warden, in the latter picture the principal. The most fascinating angle of this image is how perfect the prison guards manage to execute their mission dutifully. Some of them are equipped with nine millimeter-shot guns others prefer machineguns but many others master sniper-rifles. Do not mistake the weapon association for the efficiency of the teaching approaches nor for the sagacity of the tutoring skills, to be clear upfront most of Moroccan university cores are mere shortsighted greedy mobs whose last resort to earn an easy and suitable life is education. Rather, the weapon association refers to the high degree of unjustified aggression, limitless hate and total indifference towards students.

A random Moroccan college student would enumerate catastrophic incompetence, irreparable mental damage and narrow-mindedness among the top features of the lengthy list of highly contagious chronic sicknesses most university teaches suffer from. For instance, while Professors and scientific researchers all around the world find pride and honor in propagandizing their work as widely as possible, Moroccan academic student do not even have access to their teacher’s course-notes for the simple reason that most of them over decades of career could not manage to arrange an elementary consequent document and those who have one consider the latter personal property. Not to mention, the irrelevance of many courses conducted with outdated scientific techniques and the severe lack of practical applications.

Furthermore, in spite of the inadequate qualifications Moroccan university teachers multitask. For example a statistics teacher could cover over decades for a financial fellow teacher who is still studying in high school and planning in becoming a financial professor one of these days, or a sociology PhD holder who had the privilege of being framed in an Anglo-Saxon county would swimmingly fill up for a deceased English teacher. Moreover, no matter how good students might do in exams most of the time grades are below average. Requesting exam papers for consultation or second opinion is not only unwelcomed indoors Moroccan university but also banned, unbefitting the university code, which only works one way, which is in favor of teachers, teachers only. A common answer to the said request is “it’s classified” as if teachers are spying agents of some sort.

Stupidity dwell in many sanctuaries but mostly it finds harbor and shelter alongside Moroccan academic teachers. Exceptionally, indoors Moroccan university, ignorance is extremely well dressed that it unquestionably passes for conformity and even taken for standardness. Therefore, Students should never let their deficient moronic teachers draw limits for their boundless capacities. Learning could be viewed as a checker game-opposing teacher to students, which rule number one is never play a weaker opponent because one can only get smart by playing a smarter foe. Which is never the case within Moroccan campuses. Matter of fact, half of Moroccan universities should be sealed for that they only contribute in the skyrocketing rate of unemployment.

Scientific research is normally the pumping heart of any worldly university. Besides teaching, Academic teachers in order to bolster their functions as professors should constantly contribute in both national and international scientific journals in collaboration with students. Sadly, Moroccan “Professors” are notorious for their phantom-like presence in their offices. De facto, the university parking lot is only crowded several times a year, principally when the faith of at fault students is at stake. In this case, Moroccan teachers are not only thrilled to decide of the deterrent punitive measures against the defaulting students but also find heart contentment and self-fulfillment in being unforgiving.

Therefore, public opinion should stop being in favor of teachers victims of student violent physical assaults. It is common knowledge that nobody approves of violence in civilized societies especially within university quadrangles, yet when all forms of rational dialogue, peaceful settlement and compromised resolutions are unreasonably ruled out; extremism remain the one and only exit into righteousness. Harmoniously, when a nation’s educational system is not only corrupted but does not even meet basic academic standards of integrity, commitment and more importantly ethics at this extent one should wonder are we really civilized or is it just a name-tag we carry around delusively.

In a country where 28% of its population live under the threshold of poverty, shamelessly Moroccan Minister of higher education, scientific research and professional training find it amusing to announce every now and then how serious his administration is about privatizing the vulnerable naked Moroccan educational system. Now more than ever, Academic Moroccan teachers are in critical need of the said administration. Providing regular free mental evaluation inside Moroccan campuses exclusively for university cores, mainly for teachers, should be the central concern of Mr. Lahcen Daoudi rather than selling gold in Eldorado lands.

Moroccan academic students will continue to suffer as long as teachers’ authority is undisputed. It is high time that justice introduce itself within Moroccan universities. The mentally sick academic teachers are to be immediately deported into adequate facilities and with no delay, dishonest others are to be charged with national treason and sentenced to death by hanging. Only then, Moroccan students can hope for a better learning environment.
http://www.thetunistimes.com/2013/09/opinion-the-defaulting-educational-system-in-morocco-25953/
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Robert Walker, social studies teacher at Academy of the Canyons, plans to travel to Morocco on March 8 as part of the Teachers for Global Classrooms Program. This weekend, Academy of the Canyons teacher Robert Walker will travel to Rabat, Morocco as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Teachers for the Global Classroom Initiative.

Walker was selected as one of 72 teachers nationwide to be part of the competitive program, which involves a symposium in Washington, D.C. and an online course, in addition to international travel.

There were more than 400 applicants, and the application process was extensive, Walker said, requiring letters of recommendation and several essays.

He was interested in Global Classroom Initiative, because educating students in reading, writing and arithmetic is no longer enough, Walker said. “The reason I went for the program in the first place is the focus is on global education,” he said.

Funded by the State Department and administered by the International Research and Exchanges Board, the Global Classroom Initiative will send teachers to several countries this year.

The Morocco trip, for which Walker was selected, is the first in 2014.

Trips to Ghana, Russia, India, Colombia and the Philippines are also scheduled for the spring and summer.

Because Walker will be overseas while school is in session, he hopes to make the trip a learning experience for his students as well. “I’m putting together this website. It’s going to have a blog. I’m encouraging kids to go up and comment on it,” he said. “I want this to be an important adventure for my students as well.”

Barring technical difficulties, Walker plans to hold a video conference with parents during AOC’s open house later this month.

When he returns, Walker would also like to start building projects that allow his students to collaborate with other students around the world, he said.

The trip is scheduled for March 8-22.

Walker currently teaches social studies at AOC and was named the school’s Teacher of the Year in 2006-2007.

About the Teachers for the Global Classrooms Program

The Teachers for Global Classrooms Program provides a year-long professional development opportunity for middle and high school teachers from the United States to participate in a program aimed at globalizing teaching and learning in their classrooms.

The program has several goals.

·          TGC fellows should become skilled authors and analysts of pedagogical materials that infuse a global perspective into the core curriculum.

·          They should be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to effectively catalyze global engagement in their school communities.

·          They should develop skills as practitioners and ambassadors of globalized pedagogy resulting in enhanced student learning outcomes within the U.S. education system. http://hometownstation.com/santa-clarita-news/education/william-s-hart-union-school-district/high-school-teacher-travel-morocco
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Moroccan caravan celebrates Jewish heritage in the country: Culture minister hails initiative; ended 26/2 in Casablanca 27 February
(by Virginia Di Marco) (ANSAmed) ROME, FEBRUARY 27 -

The fourth annual three-day caravan to celebrate Judeo-Moroccan heritage ended on Wednesday on arriving in Casablanca. The initiative, which made stops in Ifrane and Fes as well, aimed to raise awareness about the history and traditions of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. There are some 8,000 Moroccan Jews living in the country today, compared with between 250,000 and 350,000 prior to the creation of the modern state of Israel. The caravan was 'driven' by the Moroccan association Mimouna, which was founded in 2007 by two Muslim students and now operates in numerous cities across the country. From its very name it shows a declaration of intent: 'mimouna' is the name of a holiday observed by Jewish Moroccans the day after Pesah (Jewish Easter) that celebrates the return of leavened food after the Easter week without it. The celebration of Judeo-Moroccan heritage is only half of what Mimouna aims to do: the other, more important goal is to raise tolerance especially among the youth, reminding them that Morocco has a ''plural identity'' and that the country is ''proud and strong because of the diversities it contains within it'', said the association's director, El Mehdi Boudra.

Fes's Jewish community, the Casablanca Jewish Museum and the University of Ifrane also helped with the organizing of the caravan. Culture Minister Mohammed Amine Sbihi praised the initiative, underscoring the need to promote and make the most of Judeo-Moroccan heritage.

Several intellectuals, academics and film directors have recently taken up this aim as well, including history professor Kamal Hachkar, a Moroccan who has gained French citizenship, who in returning to his family's Berber village discovered traces of a Jewish community still present in the memories of the elderly inhabitants, but which the young are entirely ignorant of. In 2013, the documentary 'Tinghir-Jerusalem, Echoes from the Mellah' reconstructed both the coexistence in the village prior to the Jews' departure and the life of Jews after their progressive mass transfer to to Israel between the 1950s and the 1960s, amid Zionist trends and encouragement by the Jewish Agency. This is where history mingles with politics. Hachkar and others who - like him - want to recover the history of Jews in Morocco come up against accusations of wanting to 'normalize' relations with the State of Israel. ''But the Arab-Israeli conflict has nothing to do with film,'' the professor and film director told ANSAmed during the presentation of his film in Italy. ''If the Jews of Tinghir had settled in Papua New Guinea, I would have gone to Papua New Guinea. Some attacks are exploited for specific ends and made by pan-Arabists and Islamists who, in reality, have never lifted a finger to help Palestinians.'' (ANSAmed).
http://world.einnews.com/article/192738485/-Wh6CIGTKgDykQS1?n=1&code=F0A6UI8SDeLVJB2O
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Moroccan Jews celebrate heritage in traveling roadshow.
March 7, 2014 (JTA)

Morocco’s Jewish community concluded an annual traveling exhibition celebrating its heritage. The Caravan of Judeo-Moroccan Heritage arrived in Casablanca last week after traveling through Fez and Ifrane. This year was the exhibition’s fourth year, according to the Ya Biladi daily.

The roadshow brought Jewish films, artifacts and literature to each of the three cities from Feb. 24 to Feb 26 in a bid to expose non-Jewish Moroccans to the community’s customs.

This year, a special emphasis was placed on Casablanca’s Jewish museum, which is believed to be the only such institution in the Arab world, and which enjoys funding from the Moroccan government.

The caravan of several cars operated by a group of activists from the Mimouna Jewish cultural association ended its 300-mile sojourn at the museum, which last year reopened after a massive restoration.

Mimouna organized the traveling exhibition in cooperation with the Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane, near Fez. The organizers also offered free Jewish cooking sessions in stops along the route.

Serge Bardougo, secretary general of the Moroccan Jewish community, said during a speech at the museum that “the Jewish-Moroccan Diaspora maintains its unshakable ties to its country of origin.”

Some 250,000 Moroccan Jews immigrated to Israel after its establishment in 1948. Approximately 3,000 Jews currently live in Morocco,according to the European Jewish Congress.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/03/07/news-opinion/world/moroccan-jews-celebrate-heritage-in-travelling-roadshow#ixzz2vOD7RtS8
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A Jewish Voice on Arabic Radio. 03/06/2014 Joseph Braude

Sunday night for me is always Moroccan radio night. From a home office in Brooklyn surrounded by echo-absorbing foam, I write a commentary in Arabic about the week in Arab politics and then read it into a microphone. Next, I upload the sound file to a studio in Casablanca, where a producer adds the theme song, and it airs the following day to an audience of 1.75 million under the title Risalat New York--"Letter from New York."

My show has the distinction of being the only radio program hosted by a Jew on Arab airwaves that doesn't originate in Israel. But more than three years after the broadcast debuted, my Muslim audience now finds it ordinary, rather than aberrant, to hear a Jewish voice opine on Arab affairs in their mother tongue. In numerous Arab countries, such a situation would be revolutionary--but in Morocco, where the leadership has proactively nurtured Muslim-Jewish understanding for years, it's merely one step forward among many. Given that the listenership has begun to spread beyond the kingdom's borders, moreover, Risalat New York presents a case in point of how the broader Moroccan policies that keep me on the air can help spread tolerance in other places where Arabic is spoken, too.
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