4.7 million head to schools in Morocco

Some 4.7 Million pupils headed this week to their schools to begin the 1998-99 academic year, the Moroccan Education Department said. The figure shows a 7 percent increase compared to the previous year. However, some 2 to 2.5 million children will not be schooled this year.

Some 3.3 million pupils were registered in the first cycle of fundamental education, ie. a 6.6 percent increase over last year. the number of fundamental education pupils in rural world stands at 1.5 million, an 11 percent increase.

In order to soak the increasing number of pupils, the National Education Department decided to construct some 3,911 additional classrooms.

The bringing down of the schooling aged to 6 from 7 is one of the innovations introduced this year in a bid to generalize education at the dawn of the 21st century.

In a related development, Moroccan National Education Minister Smail Alaoui stressed the need to increase the share of education in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 4.5 percent to 6 percent in order to ensure the promotion of the sector.

The Minister, who spoke at a round table hosted by the Moroccan TV channel RTM on the problems of education, said that the government is determined to generalize education in the five coming years.