Morocco sees illiteracy as brake to development
Morocco, Education, 6/10/2003

Illiteracy is a brake to Morocco's development and a national issue, Moroccan minister in charge of public sector modernization, Najib Zerouali, said.

The official, who was speaking at the launch of a nationwide campaign to fight illiteracy, urged all citizens to get involved in the nationwide drive to fight this handicap to human resources.

Part of the campaign, "March towards light," thousands of people, mostly adults, will follow courses in a bid to downsize illiteracy that hits 12 million Moroccans.

The minister underlined that the development of communities is not measured according to economic criteria by also based on social indicators such as the level of education among adults.

According to Zerouali, 48 percent of Morocco's population are illiterate. The rate is higher among females (62 percent) and rural population (67 percent). Nearly two million children aged 9 to 12 years are out of school, he said.

Morocco seeks to bring down the alarming rate of illiteracy to 20 percent in 2010 before eradicating it completely by 2015.

The 2003 anti-illiteracy campaign, an endeavor associating all the Moroccan society components, consists of four programs: the general literacy campaign that will target 570,000 recipients, a program by public bodies for 146,000 persons, activities by associations for 269,000 persons and plan carried out by private enterprises for 15,000 recipients.

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