National Teachers' Forum: the teacher is the engine of educational development
- Teachers are the driving force behind the development of the education system
- FMVI at the service of teachers and their families
- Teachers are the source of social stability
- Competence and integration to restore the attractiveness of the profession
- Technology and new skills: the challenge for training institutions
The Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Sports organised, in partnership with the Mohammed VI Foundation for the improvement of social services in education and training, the first edition of the National Teachers' Forum, which brought together 3,000 teachers from Morocco's twelve regional academies.
The meeting was attended by Moroccan and foreign experts in the field of teaching and education through 150 interventions in conferences, round tables and workshops. Teachers have praised the initiative and see the event as a very interesting opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from successful experiences and develop their skills.
Teachers are the driving force behind the development of the education system
The Minister of National Education, Pre-school and Sports, Chakib Ben Moussa, placed special emphasis on the national ambition to improve the quality of public schools, which is achieved through the implementation of a reform that sees teachers as the driving force behind the development of the Moroccan education system.
‘It is a reform that works on the mechanisms and instruments that contribute to the development of human capital in the education sector,’ explained the minister, explaining that the Forum is a major event of its kind in Morocco, and that it brings back the true value of teachers, sheds light on their crucial role in society and serves to discuss the issues that are of most concern.
Ben Moussa recalled the 2022-2026 roadmap which aims to build a quality public school for all and which is in line with the real orientations and recommendations of the New Development Model; stressing the importance of consolidating the role of teachers as actors in the transformation the country is undergoing; by investing in continuous training, increasing the attractiveness of the profession and improving working conditions.
The Minister of Education explained the new model of ‘pioneer’ public schools in its first phase of activation and the positive results that have been achieved so far. ‘There are 620 pioneer primary schools in operation in the 2023-2024 school year, a number that is increasing year by year until the experience is generalised in 2026. This reform has had a positive impact on the skills of apprentices thanks to learning according to level,’ he added.
According to the Moroccan Laboratory of Innovation and Evaluation, which analysed a sample of 20,000 pupils, 62% of pupils with a low level were able, thanks to the pioneer schools, to master all the essential skills compared to ordinary schools.
In this sense, the minister concluded that the pioneer school is a collective commitment to improve the quality of the public sector and the educational services offered to citizens, as well as to overcome the crisis of confidence that the system is experiencing in its relationship with society.
FMVI at the service of teachers and their families
Youssef Bakkali, President of the Mohammed VI Foundation, said that ‘the event reflects a clear recognition of the role of the teacher as an actor of change for the education system’, recalling that ‘the creation of the foundation was a translation of the real will to provide quality social services to respond to the needs of teaching and education professionals and their families’.
‘Two million people, including their partners and children, benefit from the Foundation's services: 470,000 families benefit from health services, 160,000 from the housing support programme, 3,000 merit scholarships for the outstanding children of teachers, 120,000 scholarships for pre-school, 2 million trips and excursions, in addition to other leisure, cultural and artistic activities,’ explained Bakkali.
The President of the Foundation concluded by stating that ‘supporting today's generations in their learning and training path is relevant because they are the energies of the future that will build tomorrow's Morocco’.
Teachers are the source of social stability
Nono Crato, research professor at the University of Lisbon, stressed that ‘teachers are the source of social stability, given their fundamental role in the education of generations and their great contribution to the development of the country by working on the competence of students, the future human capital on which the economy and society rely’.
‘We are not robots, we are human beings. There must always be a dialogue between the teacher and the student; a cognitive dialogue of knowledge based on a good education system with a national curriculum and an extra, standardised and formative assessment system; alongside a support system for students with extreme difficulties,’ Crato said.
Competence and integration to restore the attractiveness of the profession
Abdenasser Naji, president of the Amaken association, emphasised the need to empower the population and bring it up to a certain level of knowledge without losing sight of the need to give the teacher's role its due value through the training and motivation of education staff.
‘If we start from the crisis of learning, essential and creative skills for learners in the public sector, we realise the main challenge that is expected to be achieved through this national based reform while taking into consideration other factors such as governance, technical and the role of the family,’ said Naji, urging the acquisition of professional social and emotional competencies as a key point in teacher training.
‘Institutionalising continuing teacher education and ensuring strong pre-service training for entry into the profession plays a key role in consolidating the teacher's contribution to the reform of the education system,’ emphasised Laila Benslimane, an expert in teaching and educational sciences.
The president of the Friends of Public Schools Association and member of the Higher Council for Education and Scientific Research, she shed light on the act of teaching as an operation that, according to the writer Philippe Meirie, is made up of three projects: the cultural project, the political project and the philosophical project.
Benslimane insisted on the philosophical project as an essential axis in the consolidation of the humanist essence of the teacher who is the teacher, the educator, the professor, the pedagogue, the transmitter of values, the model, the mentor...etc.
Technology and new skills: the challenge for training institutions
Khadija El Hariri, research professor and director of the National Teachers' College, highlighted the challenge facing the school as a training institution for future teachers, which lies in new technologies and the modern skills (social, emotional and artistic) needed to adapt to the needs of the new generations.
‘The mission of the teacher is not only to transmit information and knowledge but it is an educational mission that seeks to sow the seeds of human values and citizenship to students from the preschool stage to build a responsible generation aware of its role in the development of Moroccan society’, revealed El Hariri, insisting that the teacher is not the social reformer who will solve all problems, but is the actor capable of guiding learners to adapt to the right positions in real situations.
Teacher training has undergone, according to Khadija El Hariri, a profound change with a duration of 5 years during which the teacher receives the necessary competences to be not only an education professional and the basis of the development of the education system, according to the strategic vision of the National Education Council.
‘Restoring the attractiveness and quality of the profession and providing the teacher trainee with the skills of his or her speciality, soft skills, computer linguistic, cultural and artistic competences is the main objective of the reforms of these institutions’, clarified the director underlining the relevance of having a balanced personality and respecting the deontology for the teacher of the 21st century.
