Coronavirus is closing schools and affecting learning opportunities for more than 1.5 billion children and young people worldwide. The worldwide pandemic has shocked education systems: how can we ensure the continuity of academic preparation for our children? Is virtual learning the answer?
In Morocco, the Ministry of Education, the network of experts who gained from previous activities sponsored by the USAID, responded: “Absolutely! While schools are closed in Morocco, 1 million students have already accessed the Ministry’s online learning portal and teaching on national TV that opens the door for millions more of Moroccan youth to start learning.”
The projects Advancing Learning and Employability for a Better Future (ALEF), funded by USAID, in the years 2004- and Improving Quality Advancement Training in National Education (ITQANE), 2009, have educated regional educational experts on innovative, quality training opportunities. Such professionals were later ready to respond to the country’s pressing request for large-scale development of online courses after Morocco’s education system was disrupted by a coronavirus. These ventures have worked in partnership with the Ministry of National Education and with the National Center for Pedagogical Innovation and Experimentation (CNIPE) to develop interactive learning courses, to create the online learning platform collab.ma and to change the national curriculum content to Multimedia education.
Mr Abdellatif Fergoug, project manager for e-learning, exclaimed: “This platform has been completely owned and dedicated to its continued development and growth by the MOE CNIPE centre. It continues to operate with a constantly growing online product range. I have seen so many friendly international events. None was introduced as thoroughly viable and globally as such USAID sponsored initiatives! The experience the ministry has acquired in distance education has enabled the ministry to operate 24 hours and rapidly generate content transmitted through the national educational portal: http:/tice.men.gov.ma/ and national television channel 4.”
USAID received positive results from the ITQANE e-learning program. All virtual courses, created through on-site training sessions and web-based team interactions, were incorporated into the learning portal collab.ma, created by the Ministry and now its distance learning program network. At the end of the ITQANE program, 26 MOE distance learning experts had been motivated to develop future e-learning items in Morocco. Such experts and thousands more of the beneficiaries of initiatives sponsored by the USAID have worked hard to develop in record time and have made Morocco the pioneer in the region by transitioning rapidly online to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“I was proud to be a tutor of the Collab, who tried to respond to the country’s imperative call to provide Moroccan students with a digital educational content through the distance learning portal of the Ministry,” he said. This pandemic highlighted the importance of expanding e-learning opportunities to ensure that no student has been left behind in academia, particularly
Data Source: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)