Thanks to the tireless efforts of all partners, the coverage rate of the province of Tetouan in preschool education units has exceeded 90%.
Thus, three preschool units have been inaugurated over the last three years, in peripheral neighborhoods, community centers, and even in isolated villages located to the west of the Rif mountains.
The head of the program department for boosting human capital for rising generations at the Social Action Division (DAS) of the province of Tetouan, Younes Yeflah Amrani, stressed that preschool education is of “great importance” and conditions good progress of the child’s educational journey, particularly in rural areas which have a high school dropout rate.
In this sense, the official affirmed that preschool education constitutes an “essential lever which gives a strong impetus to the child, allowing him to successfully integrate into primary education and to master basic knowledge, which will enable him facilitates their academic career in the secondary college and qualifying secondary cycles.
In the preschool unit located in the village of Alalech, in the territorial commune of Ain Lahcen, around 10 children, girls and boys, aged 4 to 6 years old, sit at the table in the classroom. They are supervised by a specialist teacher who helps them succeed in the first steps of their school career.
Inaugurated 3 years ago, this unit has given a strong boost to the children of this village, by promoting their access to preschool education while respecting the required quality criteria, especially since the unit is located in the center of the village, next to the main road, with easy access.
Mr. Yeflah Elamrani noted that this unit is in addition to 34 other units created within the framework of the INDH, since the launch of its third phase in 2019, spread over 20 municipalities in the province of Tetouan.
In order to strengthen this service, the manager stressed that a project to build 12 new preschool units during the period 2022-2023 was launched, within the framework of the INDH, with a budget of around 3 million dirhams. (MDH).
These units and others carried out within the framework of public programs, are managed by the Moroccan Foundation for the Promotion of Preschool Education (FMPS), which supervises the recruitment and training of teachers, according to the pedagogy adopted in terms of education of children, and also ensures that it meets current standards.
At the preschool unit in the village of Alalech, like the other units, the teachers adopt an approach based on the pedagogy of learning through play, which is based on three axes, namely education, openness and learning.
This approach aims to enable the child to learn basic knowledge, such as letters, numbers and the days of the week, and to strengthen their skills, through discovery, experience, confidence in self and a little autonomy.
In this context, Yassin Slimani, provincial manager of the FMPS in Tetouan, noted that the Foundation has trained, as part of the preparations for the current school year, more than 180 teachers, with 400 hours of training for each, specifying that the training focused on the pedagogy adopted by the foundation.
Mr. Slimani announced that the Foundation, with its partners, notably the INDH and the Regional Academy of Education and Training (AREF), has inaugurated more than 178 new preschool units, for the 2022 school year. -2023, bringing the number of classes managed by the Foundation to 350, emphasizing that the province’s coverage rate in preschool units reaches around 90%.
These units, he continued, are divided into two parts, the first in partnership with the INDH, with around 40 course classes, including 20 inaugurated this year, and units carried out in partnership with the AREF (approximately 310 classes).
Boosting the human capital of rising generations, according to the philosophy of the INDH, begins from the first years of the child’s life, by providing them with quality preschool education, which meets both a development imperative and equity, in addition to promoting openness to their environment and strengthening their skills, in order to successfully integrate into school and society.