UNESCO Slams Morocco’s Education System

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Fez - The Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2013/4, published annually by UNESCO, had its global launch in Ethiopia and in Brazil simultaneously on 29 January 2014.

In Brazil, the launching event took place in Brasilia, at the auditorium of the Museum of the Republic, Esplanada dos Ministérios, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There was a seminar with a presentation and discussion on the results of the Report. The title of the 2013/4 edition is “Teaching and Learning: reaching quality for all.”

It was created with the purpose of monitoring the EFA goals by 2015, a limit date established by 164 countries that signed the EFA framework for action during the World Education Forum in Dakar (Senegal) in 2000. Six internationally agreed education goals aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.

Goal 1

Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

Goal 2

Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.

Goal 3

Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.

Goal 4

Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.

Goal 5

Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.

Goal 6

Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

The EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013/4 brings an update of progress in achieving these goals. It also brings a novelty: this edition includes the monitoring of investments to achieve the goals at global level. The focus is the importance of equity and quality of education, with special attention to teacher training, who are the pillars for addressing the crisis in education and educational planning policies post-2015. The report explained how investing wisely in teachers, and other reforms aimed at strengthening equitable learning, transform the long-term prospects of people and societies.

According to the Coordinator of the Education Unit at UNESCO Brasilia Office, Rebeca Otero, “the launch of the EFA Monitoring Report is an opportunity to bring together key experts and representatives of education in Brazil and to foster debate on education in the region and worldwide.

The report’s findings were alarming. Fifty-seven million children are still failing to learn, simply because they are not in school. poor quality is holding back learning even for those who make it to school. One third of primary school age children are not learning the basics, whether they have been to school or not.

Governments must step up efforts to recruit an additional 1.6 million teachers to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Meanwhile they should provide teachers with the right mix of incentives to encourage them to remain in the profession and to make sure all children are learning, regardless of their circumstances. This is why a dramatic shift in funding is needed. Basic education is currently underfunded by US$26 billion a year, while aid is continuing to decline.

For many of the world’s poorest countries, tax evasion results in the elite building personal fortunes, rather than strong education systems for the majority. If the trillions of dollars estimated to be hidden away in tax havens were subject to capital gains tax, and 20% of the resulting income was allocated to education, it would add between US$38 billion and US$56 billion to funding for the sector.

Illegal tax practices cost African governments an estimated US$63 billion a year. If these practices were halted and 20% of the resulting income spent on education, it would raise an additional US$13 billion for the sector each year. On average across the 67 countries, spending per primary school age child would increase from US$209 to US$466 in 2015. In the low income countries among the 67, the average amount spent per primary school age child would increase from US$102 to US$158. Fourteen of these 67 countries have already reached the proposed target of spending at least 6% of GDP on education. Of the 53 yet to reach the target, 19 could achieve it if they expanded and diversified the tax base and prioritized education spending by 2015. In the case of Morocco, it allocates only 3% of its GDP which is roughly half of what other countries do (see Figure below).

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Finally, the report aligns Morocco with twenty other countries, mostly Sub-Sahara African countries, India and Pakistan as the worst educational systems in the world. In these countries, more than 50% of primary school pupils do not master the foundation skills of basic numeracy and literacy in the early grades so they can understand what is taught in later grades, but they fail to do so because curricula are too ambitious.