Minister expects school enrollment to reach 95 to 100%

Moroccan education minister, Abdallah Saaf, said he expected school enrollment to range between 95 and 100% of all children in schooling age (6 years) nationwide for the 2002-2003 school year.

In the most pessimistic forecasts, the national schooling rate of 6-year-old children will stand at 95%, he added stressing that Morocco is for the first time exceeding the percentage of 90% or 4 million children.

He went on that the schooling of 6 year-olds was not central in the government's schooling generalization policy which used to focus on children aged 7 until the 1998-1999 school year which marked the starting point for this new action.

Schooling indicators have considerably improved between the 1997-1998 and the 2001-2001 school years, from 37% to 91% of six-year old children, he said, while in rural areas the schooling of children aged between 6 and 11 went up from 55% to 84% and from 37% to 44% for girls.

In order to receive the new enrolled children, a total of 3,100 additional classrooms will be made available and 7,000 teachers will be hired, he announced.