Morocco # English board

[maroc360.net]

Watch and enjoy what he has to say about the political system in his homeland.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/2007 09:46 by Krim.

The Prince does make a good case, however he wants to go too fast, the changes he wants would be worthless if the education system is not reformed from top to bottom. Right now the only solution brought forth when people talk of change is to add more religion to the process as if that would magically resolve everything.
As long as this thinking process is in place, the status quo is preferable.
Things are improving, at a slow pace, but improving. He said it himself, we're at a crossroad, anything can tip the scale in the wrong way, specially in a predominantly muslim society.
If he wants to advise his cousin, he should put the little weight he has in favor of a major boost for the school system, that would at least insure that the next generation would be more ready and receptive to the changes and to its citizenship duties.

On a more personal note, I like what the Prince does on renewable energies, it's a shame is not doing more of those projects in the homeland => [www.altayyarenergy.com]

I noticed he's very "welcome" in the US, and so is Nadia Yassine, I hope the Americans are not grooming him for power because they're thinking of doing something stupid in the region.

Quote
chelhman
On a more personal note, I like what the Prince does on renewable energies, it's a shame is not doing more of those projects in the homeland => [url
http://www.altayyarenergy.com/project_portfolio.asp[/url]

I noticed he's very "welcome" in the US, and so is Nadia Yassine, I hope the Americans are not grooming him for power because they're thinking of doing something stupid in the region.

here it says they focus on the maghreb area [www.altayyarenergy.com]
Is he the owner of the company?

Hi Kutchia,

No, it seems he's a shareholder (don't know how much) and managing director of the company, but he spearheaded the project in Thaïland for instance, it would be nice to see him do the same in Morocco. Right now, the representation of Al Tayyar seems to be minor, they're placing some solar panels, nothing substantial.
If there's one thing we desperatly need back home in the next few decades, it's energy alternatives.

Hello,
Thanks for this video of the prince, it is interesting,
while reading your analysis Chelhman, I totally agree with you when u say than the reform should be first in the education system, however, if change does come from top to down, it is time to make ot work the opposite way.
also, concerning what u said, "I noticed he's very "welcome" in the US" u r right again, and that might be a process of democratization that is one of the US mission in the Arab states,
I hope it won't happen because it's gonna be a huge mistake.

Dear Chelhman
I just copy/past what the experts say:

"Lack of political will
What are the main reasons for the lack of progress in literacy rates in the Arab States? One reason, experts say, is the lack of political will to promote the right to education as some regimes fear that this would lead to demands for social and economical developments."

You need serious political and constitutional reforms in order to tackle the problems of education.etc



see link a 2002 piece.
[portal.unesco.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/2007 10:48 by Krim.

Illiteracy: the obstacle to an Arab renaissance - Updated: 2002-10-28 4:37 pm
Out of 270 million Arab people, some 67 million stepped into the twenty-first century without being able to read or write. More political will and public debate on the region's efforts to abolish literacy are needed.
Today 40 per cent of adults in the Arab region are illiterate. And projections show that if current efforts continue, 28 per cent of the region's population will still be illiterate in 2015.

"Some governments have failed to cope with the problem although the percentage of illiterates has decreased from 60 per cent in the 1970s to 40 per cent today," says Victor Billeh, Director of UNESCO Beirut and Regional Bureau for Education.. He explains that this paradoxical situation is mainly due to high population growth. The decrease in illiteracy has been around 1 per cent annually compared to a population increase of more than 3 per cent.

No development without literacy
But the situation varies significantly between countries. The greatest numbers of illiterates are in five countries: Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, and Yemen where roughly 49 of the 67 million illiterate adults live. This constitutes 73 per cent of all illiterates in the twenty-two Arab countries. Ten Arab countries, namely Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Djibouti, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Mauritania account for only 3.6 million illiterates.

One thing is certain however, the high illiteracy rate hinders economic and social development.
The Director-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), Mongi Bousnenah, warns that the number of illiterates constitutes “an alarming proportion" that threatens the development of this region. “Arab countries need to activate the human and financial resources to effectively fight illiteracy", he says.

Today literacy goes beyond the notion of reading and writing; it also encompasses language and computer skills and other relevant skills needed to cope in modern society and fully participate in all aspects of social, economic and even political life.

Zahi Azar, the regional secretary of the Ecumenical Project for Popular Education which involves Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Yemen and the Palestinian Autonomous Territories, estimates that there are more than 100 million illiterates in the Arab region. Arab countries do not give accurate information, he says, because no genuine evaluation of efforts to abolish illiteracy exist and the official numbers do not take into consideration the people falling back into illiteracy.

The head of the Lebanese Association for Educational Sciences, Adnan Al-Amin, notes that there is a discrepancy between the information provided by governments and by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In Lebanon, where literacy reporting is considered one of the most accurate, the official proportion of illiterates is 14 per cent compared to the NGO figure of 23 per cent. What does this mean for other Arab countries having official illiteracy rates of 43 per cent, he asks.

Women's illiteracy
What is more alarming is that the rates of illiteracy among women, youth, and the underprivileged sectors of society are even higher, particularly in rural regions. In Yemen, for example, 54 per cent of the country’s 9 million people are illiterate and the figure increases to about 90 per cent among women and 76 per cent among men in rural areas, according to the National Committee for Literacy.
.
Yemen’s Education for All coordinator, Insaf Abdo Kassem, states that the Yemeni education plans "fail because of the absence of major sectors of society when establishing programmes and plans related to abolishing illiteracy".

The Head of the Arab Women League, Huda Badran, emphasizes that women's illiteracy is linked to other serious indicators of underdevelopment, such as infant mortality and family size. An educated mother has fewer children and is more likely to send her children to school.

The consequences are seen in pre-school and primary school enrolments. Although the number of children receiving early childhood care and education doubled in the period of 1980-1995, the total number did not exceed 2.5 million children in 1995. Moreover, today some 10 million school-age children in the region are not in school and when they turn 15 years old, they will join the ranks of adult illiterates.

Lack of political will
What are the main reasons for the lack of progress in literacy rates in the Arab States? One reason, experts say, is the lack of political will to promote the right to education as some regimes fear that this would lead to demands for social and economical developments. The head of Bahrain Center for Studies and Researches, Ali Fakhro, believes that political will is not available to eliminate illiteracy.

Finally, the majority of illiterate adults live in countries with large populations, suc

According to this piece, Morocco has been sleeping and give a very bad figure, Thanks to Abbas Alfassi and his clan. These are bad news.The worst news is that this man is again the head of the next governing team.
I have no hope.......

Hi Krim,

They seem to be dumping the problem on the private sector. There's a private school at every corner nowadays, it is creating a three-tier society, those who keep going to the disastrous public schools, those who have some money who can afford average private schools and the elite who keep going to "la Mission" and la Mission-like schools, the fees can reach 5000 dhs/month per kid.

The argument of not financing education "would lead to demands for social and economical developments", is not valid anymore in Morocco. There's an apparent will to create an open society, so that's not the reason.
Maybe it has something to do with the IMF/Worldbank guidelines, they usually have strict and harsh conditions on social spending, education is most of the time the first sector to get slashed.

What these IMF bureaucrats don't seem to grasp is that education is an investment, if you finance schools and universities, you breed highly educated people who create economical wealth, granted it is long term but the return is substantial.

Besides Education which is a very important matter the Moroccan political elite should tackle. There's more important than that and which affects moroccans daily life: it is the ubiquitous Corruption. As long as corruption arbitrates deals in all aspect of economical and social life, vulnerbal masses of moroccans will live in frustration and exclusion. This unfortunatelly fosters extremism and potential suicide bombers that may threaten stability of the country. It is also certain that the regime uses corruption as a tool of governance and power ballance that ensures security and continuity of political elite. This has to come to an end if Morocco want's to embrace modernity and prosperity. It is wise to reform moroccan institution and moroccan constitution to give governement room, legitimacy and power to vigourouslly combate corruption. This should start with a General Amnesty where all moroccans who ever had resorted to bribery or corruption get cleared from their charges. From that time on Zero-tolerance should be applied to addressing corruption matters. These should clean Monarchy for their considerable fortune they inherited from decades of Hassan 2 looting of moroccan wealth. The moroccan elite who had ammassed wealth illgitimatelly should be cleaned too. Thus legitimacy should then be recovered by the King, the government and the political elite which in turn will benefit law enforcement in dealing with corruption

Quote
chelhman
Hi Krim,


Maybe it has something to do with the IMF/Worldbank guidelines, they usually have strict and harsh conditions on social spending, education is most of the time the first sector to get slashed.

What these IMF bureaucrats don't seem to grasp is that education is an investment, if you finance schools and universities, you breed highly educated people who create economical wealth, granted it is long term but the return is substantial.

I totaly agree with you on the first part, but I think that IMF knows the consequences of their policy. They have also forced a privatisation of national companies like, power, wtaer and phone company in 3rd world countries and the result is allways higer prices which the people strugle to pay and therefor having diffeculties with among other things ginving their an education.