Public boarding schools help Moroccan girls continue education

2009-03-20

An innovative boarding school programme in Morocco is reducing the delinquency rate for female students.

Text and photos by Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 20/03/09

The Dar Taliba programme gives young Moroccan women the tools they need to excel in society.

Girls living in Moroccan towns are five times more likely to remain in school as their rural peers. The national attendance rate is around 60%, but is only 16.5% for girls in isolated areas. Given that the distance between rural girls' homes and schools is the primary reason for the disparity, an innovative residential programme may be the solution to keeping girls in school for more than just six years of primary education, organisers recently told a Rabat forum.

The Dar Taliba de Qualite (girls' dormitories) initiative is proving to be a good model for partnership between the public sector and charitable groups. The idea is to provide lodging, educational support and a psychosocial enrichment programme specially designed for girls from remote areas so that they can complete their studies beyond primary school.

In 2005, the Entraide Nationale, the National Federation of Charity Associations (FNAB) and the ALEF project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) created the boarding schools to enable girls from the most isolated areas in the Kingdom to achieve educational success.

This initiative "enables women and girls, particularly in rural areas, to free themselves from marginalisation and illiteracy", Mohamed Belmahi, Secretary-General of the National Federation of Charity Associations (FNAB) explained Thursday (February 26th) at a Rabat conference held to showcase the programme's progress over the last 3 years.

Entraide Nationale Director Mohamed Talbi said Dar Taliba has proven itself to be "a successful model, aimed at encouraging girls' personal and social development".

Young beneficiaries of the programme also addressed the conference, offering moving accounts of their experiences. These girls, who never dreamed they would one day be able to continue their studies right to the end, now display unprecedented ambition. They have newfound confidence in their abilities and dream of conquering the labour market in the years to come.

Gone are the days when they could only see their futures in terms of marriage.

Sara, a 15-year-old teenager, freely admits that without Dar Taliba she would have had to abandon school long ago. The same goes for little Khadija, who, thanks to the help given by Dar Taliba, has been able to improve her educational level and thus guarantee her success.

Amina, 14, can now express herself with great ease in both Arabic and French. She does not hesitate to approach people, whereas two years ago she was shy and could never get a clear message across. Bursting with energy, she tells Magharebia that the past is forgotten and she is now ready to think about a promising future.

"I've learned to tackle difficulties and to look at life in a different way. A human being is nothing without learning and without culture. And I expect to succeed," she says, her eyes sparkling with intelligence.

"My parents intend to support me, having seen the change in my personality, even though at the start they had decided to marry me off. Unfortunately, that's not the case for other girls," she added.

Observers attribute the success of the Dar Taliba model to more than location and talented teachers. Psychosocial enrichment and extracurricular activities are also important to changing the girls' attitudes, explains Aziza Hmamouchi, the director of ALEF's educational component.

Less than 1% of Dar Taliba students drop out prior to completing their studies.

"We have encouraged pupils to become independent, opening them up to the world and to their creative and analytical capabilities. Their civic spirit is absolutely essential for successful social and economic integration," Hmamouchi says.

Government surveys show that the programme is working: the school drop-out rate in these establishments is less than 1%. The general pass rate for Dar Taliba students has almost doubled, from 43% in 2005-2006 to 84% in 2007-2008.

"These figures have nothing to do with luck," asserts Entraide Nationale Director Mohamed Talbi. "They can be explained by the participative approach involving all actors in these structures."

The interim Chargé d’Affaires at the United States embassy in Morocco, Robert Jackson, also sees the experiment as very positive. "This model backs up the programmes and projects introduced by Morocco as part of its work to combat school drop-out and to improve the quality of school education," he says.

These boarding schools are all the more important because they enable girls to be motivated to become "class leaders", adds ALEF project director Joshua Muskin. He feels that it is the efforts of the educators that set the Dar Taliba facilities apart from other institutions.

The ALEF pilot project started in 2005-2006 with just 90 girls in four boarding houses: Tighassaline (Khénifra province), Beni-Tajjit (Figuig province), Beni-Battaou (Khouribga province) and Tinjdad (Errachidia province). The programme was extended in 2006-2007 to ten Entraide Nationale Dar Talibas, reaching 1,090 girl beneficiaries. In 2007-2008, 16,000 young people benefited, with 212 social security establishments accommodating 16,000 boarders.

ALEF project director Joshua Muskin says the programme boosts girls' confidence, turning many into "class leaders".

When the Dar Taliba initiative began, however, it was not easy convincing parents to send their daughters away from home to pursue an education. Statistics reflect a persistent problem: in rural areas, parents rarely consider letting their girls complete their studies beyond primary school.

Educators had to mount an immense effort to get the project off the ground. But three years on, these boarding houses have earned themselves a good reputation among the population.

Now, encouraging schooling for girls - particularly in rural areas – has become a priority for the national education ministry.

Boosted by the positive results and the experience of working with USAID, l'Entraide Nationale is planning to roll the programme out across its 774 social security establishments across the country, starting in 2009 with the Souss-Massa-Drâa region.

"Boarders are now starting to think about the future and to set themselves targets," teacher Meriam Begari tells Magharebia. "Some want to continue their studies as far as possible, and others want to learn a trade, particularly in craft or tourism."