Morocco launches nationwide anti-illiteracy campaign

Morocco launched Tuesday a nationwide anti-illiteracy campaign titled "Massirat Annour" (March toward light).

King Mohammed VI, has addressed on the occasion to Moroccans a message read out by secretary of state in charge of literacy and informal education, Najiba Ghozali, on the Moroccan TV channel (TVM).

The sovereign expressed in the message "deep worries" over the phenomenon that affects one Moroccan out of two and "extends its dark veil on more than 12 million Moroccans," particularly women and children. The king deplored that a child out of three cannot write and read and 2 million children aged below 5 years do not have access to schooling.

A special emphasis was laid by the sovereign on human development as "a crucial element to fulfill our project of a modernist and democratic society whose roots are our civilization authenticity and religious values and with branches extending to contemporary values, science, knowledge, technology and modern systems"

The royal message also calls for "collective action" by all Moroccan official and non-governmental bodies and organizations, in addition to mosques where literacy courses are taught and that should be endowed with the needed staff and means. Efficient pedagogical means and the mobilization of all the qualified persons are needed if literacy drives are to succeed, said the sovereign who praised the ngo's actions.