USAID assesses rural girls schooling programs

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) presented on Friday at a round-table here various projects it supported to reduce the gap in rural girls schooling.

The "Girls Education Activity," implemented in six countries, means to promote awareness at the national and provincial levels on girls schooling with the collaboration of private enterprises, non-governmental organizations and the media. It consists of partnership between socio-economic actors and the government to level down obstacles hindering girls' access to education.

The second project (Morocco/ Education for Girls), worth $ 12 million, consists of training teachers in the learner-oriented active pedagogic activities. Started in 1997 in 20 pilot schools, it involves schools, the community and the education system by increasing the number of pilot schools, teacher training centers and supporting community action.

As for the "Computer-Assisted Teacher Training," part of a partnership convention concluded last March between the education ministry and the USAID, it focuses on the use of computers to consolidate and improve teaching techniques. The project, part of the ministry's one-classroom-one-Multimedia-computer" strategy, seeks to equip teacher training schools with computers.

An executive from the ministry expounded at the round-table the ministry strategy since 1996 to reduce schooling gaps between girls and boys, address problems related to remoteness facing rural populations and support educators and education managers in their pedagogic efforts.

He said schooling rate reached 70.8% of boys and 53.6% of girls in rural areas in the 1998-99 academic years while in the 1999-2000 academic year, the rate jumped respectively to 76.3% and 62.1%.