Abstract:

USAID in collaboration with the Ministry of Education in Morocco launched a massive ‎initiative 3 years ago to help introduce the concept of literacy in Arabic into grade one ‎and two 90 pilot schools. The initiative came after Morocco was ranked dead last out ‎of 45 countries that took PIRLS 2011. ‎
This session aims to highlight the journey that started with an the embarrassing PIRLS results, the external review of Arabic language curriculum that was commissioned thereafter and the recommendations made for moving Arabic language ‎teaching and learning from a rote-learning, memorization based didactic into a ‎phonetic and literature based approach.‎

Following the alarming international Arabic language literacy results for students in ‎Morocco the USAID commissioned an external review of the 2015 version of the national ‎Moroccan Arabic language curriculum (grades 1-4). ‎

The external review took a global perspective integrating a framework of international best ‎practice not only in textbook design, but in philosophy of education, curriculum design and ‎approaches, assessment practices, universal/enduring understandings, robustness and ‎responsiveness to 21st Century skills. The review looked at the curriculum from the inside and ‎tried to analyze it using the curriculum’s logic, stated philosophy and stated approach.‎

The external review team took three months to review all aspects of the curriculum including the ‎White Book, the proposed curriculum, samples of in-use textbooks, test samples, previous studies ‎done on Moroccan teacher attitudes, textbook and curriculum analyses, international studies and ‎evidence-based best practices in addition to several conversations with experts in the field. ‎

A careful analysis of the 2015 edited Arabic curriculum was then undertaken with international ‎best practice as the benchmark especially in regards to:‎
‎-‎ Standards and performance indicators ‎
‎-‎ Resources
‎-‎ Pedagogy ‎
‎-‎ Assessment

Shortly after the publishing of this analysis report, the Moroccan Ministry of Education started with the help of USAID implementing a pilot in grades 1 and 2 in 90 schools around the country. Two years have already passed and the Early Reading Test results have been more than reassuring. This sessions will discuss the results of that journey.

Keywords:

PIRLS Standardized Literacy Testing, Arabic Language Education, Educational Reform, Phonetic language approach.