Rabat: The ‘Pioneer Schools’ impact index on the quality of education places Morocco at the forefront of the world rankings in this field, Minister of National Education, Preschool and Sports, Mohamed Saad Berrada said on Monday. During question time at the House of Representatives, Berrada stressed that this project stands as a major reform of the education system, noting that Morocco has achieved, according to the results of a study carried out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, a clear improvement of 0.9 standard deviations in learning.

According to Agence Marocaine De Presse, the study was based on a sample of 270 schools and compared traditional schools with ‘Pioneer Schools’. This index is calculated according to the level of the reform’s impact on the quality of education. The study indicates that the impact is weak when learning improves by 0.2 standard deviations, average when at 0.3, and excellent at 0.4. The Minister explained that the rate achieved by Morocco testifies to the success of the Pioneer Schools experiment.

The Minister recalled that last year, the Pioneer Schools project targeted 300,000 pupils in 600 educational institutions. He stressed that the challenge within the framework of this reform ‘is not the pedagogical aspect, but rather the technicalities of its implementation after the generalization’ of the project. He pointed out that the emphasis of the pioneering schools project was put on developing pupils’ skills, particularly in three subjects – mathematics, Arabic, and French – through new teaching methods.