4. Introduction of the gender perspective and the principle
of equality in the education system and school life
69. Pursuant to the Charter, Morocco has made great strides with the adoption of legislation44 and policies aimed at ensuring gender parity in access to education. As indicated above, in the school year 2006/07, girls accounted for 42 per cent of pupils enrolled in primary education, 44 per cent of pupils enrolled in compulsory secondary education and 47 per cent of pupils enrolled in non-compulsory secondary education (high school). This represents considerable progress, but given that girls make up slightly more than 50 per cent of all children in Morocco, the State must pursue its efforts to ensure full gender parity in access to education and pay special attention to girls’ access to schools in rural areas. It is also important to have disaggregated statistics on dropout and absenteeism rates, in order both to bring these down and to establish a scientific basis for public policies to ensure that all schoolchildren complete their studies, regardless of their sex.
70. However, to reduce the gender perspective and the principle of equality in education to a matter of mere parity between the sexes in access to education is to interpret these two concepts too narrowly, in the Special Rapporteur’s view. Morocco should therefore define them more broadly and tie them in with human rights education, with a view to promoting an education system that encourages the continuous participation and inclusion of girls and the development of egalitarian forms of citizenship in which the roles and skills traditionally ascribed to boys and girls are superseded.
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
71. The progress that Morocco has made in the education sector in recent decades attests to its growing commitment to human rights and the political will of the State and society. It has not benefited all sectors of the population, however, despite the strengthening of the legislative framework for protection over the years and the increase in the education budget.
72. This situation clearly shows how important it is to ground public policies firmly in human rights so as to redress social imbalances and disparities in the enjoyment and exercise of rights by means of positive action to meet the needs of the most disadvantaged social groups.
73. Despite this significant progress, the Special Rapporteur concludes that Morocco has a considerable way to go before it can guarantee all its inhabitants the effective enjoyment of the right to education. He considers that the main challenges facing Morocco in order to realize the right to education are the following:
(a) To apply the National Education and Training Charter and other legal instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to pursue public policies on education coverage and quality;
(b) To take bold and speedy action to bring broad sectors of the child population into formal and non-formal education, above all disabled children, particularly in rural areas, street children and working children. The Special Rapporteur has observed that these children have benefited less than others from the advance towards universal compulsory primary education. In Morocco, approximately 7 per cent of children, in other words 1.5 million children, do not attend school;
(c) To reduce the high school-dropout rate, which official figures put at 4 out of 10 children in compulsory primary education, 5 out of 10 in urban secondary education and 8 out of 10 in rural secondary education;
(d) To extend the coverage of literacy programmes and broaden their content beyond simply learning to read and write;
(e) To make up for lost time in achieving the objectives set in the National Education and Training Charter with regard to the teaching of the Amazigh language and culture and introduce Amazigh gradually in schools countrywide;
(f) To make human rights a real part of school life and one of the basic principles of education, as recommended in the National Education and Training Charter, and end corporal punishment in schools;
(g) To set up as soon as possible the national and regional commissions to monitor and evaluate measures adopted under the national human rights education programme so as to ensure that content is geared to meet the needs of national communities and is based on international human rights instruments;
(h) To strengthen the gender perspective in the education system and the principle of gender equality so as to do away with the current mindset that seeks merely to achieve gender parity in access to education and eliminate sexist stereotypes from textbooks.
74. In addition, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the Moroccan Government should:
(a) Urgently collect detailed information on the situation of street children and identify practical measures to ensure their inclusion in the education system;
(b) Follow the recommendations of the Children’s Parliament and take account of its comments and proposals when devising national and regional education policies;
(c) Broaden the mandate of the Ombudsman’s Office (Diwan al-Madhalim) so that it can act ex officio to promote the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to education;
(d) Establish an inter-agency team to devise and take the necessary steps to introduce school canteens nationwide within a reasonable time frame;
(e) Assess the coverage and scope of family allowance schemes with a view to reforming them as required in the very near future to ensure that schooling does not constitute an economic burden for families;
(f) Reinforce the supervision of schools so that the responsible officials can check that the National Education and Training Charter and the various national and international human rights protection instruments are being properly applied. For this purpose, the requisite specialist training should be encouraged;
(g) Bring human rights education activities into line with the World Programme for Human Rights Education adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and the plan of action for its first phase;
(h) Establish a system of legal protection against sexual harassment and sexual abuse for girls and young women;
(i) With a view to promoting girls’ education, devise and establish a system of indicators showing the consequences of domestic labour for girls;
(j) Draw up a suitable plan for training teachers to teach Amazigh, one that, in the short term, extends the length of training (currently between 3 and 15 days), in particular for teachers whose mother tongue is not Amazigh, and, in the longer term, sets the same standards of university training for the teaching of Amazigh as for other languages such as Arabic, French or English;
(k) Sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol and adopt a transition plan towards an inclusive education system;
(l) Allocate funds to provide, or grants to purchase, wheelchairs, artificial limbs and other means of enabling disadvantaged children and adolescents - male and female - to go to school;
(m) Establish a network of centres and shelters for rural girls who are the victims of violence;
(n) Work for an amendment to the law to enable children - male and female - to enrol in the education system even without parental consent;
(o) Develop disaggregated indicators on the school dropout rate and absenteeism by sex, social situation, ethnic origin and other variables, not only to help curb these problems but also to ensure that all schoolchildren complete their education, regardless of their sex.
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