Rissalat Al Ummah (Nation’s Message), daily

Issue 7505

Date : Tuesday March 2007

Nadia Tawaf

The first International Civic Education Conference Will Be held in Morocco

Our objective being to generalize and extend the clubs of civic education to all the educational institutions in a gradual fashion so that we can contribute to promoting civic education

Mr Elarbi Imad, president of the Moroccan Center for Civic Education has stressed that the center has been operating for about three years; it has reached a number of achievements; this is due to the fact that when it set the objectives that was done in such a way that they could be implemented. Mr. Imad also mentioned in an interview with Rissalat AlUma that the first international conference on civic education will be held in Morocco.

• First of all, we’d like you to introduce the Moroccan Center for Civic Education to the readers?

Thank you for your invitation that I consider an open window to get to know about what the Moroccan Center for Civic Education works on with a view to training the Moroccan citizen so that he/she can become more knowledgeable about immediate and future responsibilities in sync with the educational and pedagogical novelties in the Moroccan scene as well as in the international arena, which calls for the dissemination of the culture of tolerance, dialog, coexistence and openness to others along with due respect for their specificities. In this way, the Moroccan Center for Civic Education is an independent association based in Casablanca and set up in 2003; it is a member of the Arab Civic Education Network  (Arab Civitas) based in the Jordanian capital, Amman. It has got a steering committee and regional coordinators. 

• What are the objectives set for the Moroccan Center for Civic Education?

The Moroccan Center for Civic Education has set a number of objectives including the following:

• Deepening people’s understanding of the democratic institutions and the tenets and values upon which they have been built;

• Building and developing the necessary skills for individuals to become effective and responsible citizens;

• Increasing the understanding and willingness to adopt the democratic processes in decision-making and conflict resolution in day-to-day private and public life;

• Building and developing a positive cultural background that reinforces educational values of civic education;

• Promoting the spirit of communication and cooperation with the surrounding in a positive way, the belief in the right to being different and the respect of other views;

• Consolidating the values of citizenship and the principles of human rights in people’s attitudes and behaviors;

• It seems that the objectives that you have set for the Moroccan Center for Civic Education are very ambitious and positive because they contribute to preparing the citizen to face up to the upcoming challenges; so how are they going to be or how have they been implemented?

The center has been operating for about three years; it has reached a number of achievements; this is due to the fact that when it set the objectives, that was done in such a way that they could be implemented; it has accordingly come up with a strategy based on two centerpieces:  

• A- Training of trainers in theory and practice so that they could implement the themes effectively and in accordance with the overall perspective of the objectives set by the center;

• B- Close follow-up and monitoring of the of the themes to overcome the difficulties that get in the way and suggest potential solutions with a view to improving the work project in order for them to rise up to the necessary level of productivity and quality.
   

• What are the parties you work with to implement your projects?

As part of its strategic plan and in conformity with its objectives, part of which is the preparation of future generations, the Moroccan Center for Civic Education firmly believes that the main entry into implementation is the educational institution for a number of reasons, one of which is its openness to pedagogical novelties and civic education. In this respect, we deal with:

• The Secretariat of State in charge of Youth;

• The Regional Academies for Education and Training;

• The teacher training centers particularly the Regional Teacher Training Center of Derb-Ghalef Casablanca;

• Non government organizations and different associations of the civil society;

• University students

• Do you have any other partners you cooperate with to implement this promising project?

 Yes, for the implementation of this project, we rely on the collaboration of our partners  in the Center for Civic Education in California, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the Arab Civic Education Network(Arab Civitas).

By the way, we have started this year a new and important project called “Civic Education Partnership Initiative” with our partners in Bowling Green State University in Ohio State,  Hassan II University in Mohammedia, and the teacher training colleges. The project aims at achieving the following objectives among others:

• Developing effective tools and processes to reinforce the teaching of civic values in the educational system so as to set up civic links likely to contribute in the opening of the school to its social environment;

• The implementation of civic education in the educational system by experts from the ministry of Education and the civil society and other partners by adopting a participative approach;

• Conducting teacher training sessions and adopting new pedagogical approaches in order to incorporate civic education in the junior secondary and high secondary levels as a prerequisite contributing in the dissemination of civic education. As a result, the first international civic education conference will be held in Morocco.
   

• Could you please Mr. Imad tell us about the kinds of projects you are working on as regards civic education?

We have a wide range of projects. These are projects stemming from the needs and concerns of the learners and educators alike in order to instill new behavior since citizenship education advocates the actual conversion of learnings into day-to-day behavior instead of theoretical input like in the other subject-matters. This is the competitive advantage we are seeking to harness with or partners; that’s why in fact, we have at the preliminary stages stressed two major focal points:

• Foundations of Democracy: this allows for the development of positive decision making competencies, and acceptance of responsibilities pertaining to the rights we are entitled to as citizens, these very rights that are necessary for the perenniality of the community based on the values of responsibility, equity and freedom.

The Foundations of Democracy curriculum revolves around four fundamental concepts. Initially we singled out the concept of ‘Responsibility’. This theme is addressed basically to the students at the primary school through their teachers. The other concepts are Justice, Authority and Privacy.

Project Citizen: this is a project geared towards learning how to design and develop a public policy to solve community problems and how to track and monitor the design process and how to influence it in order to raise effective citizenship commitment through the empowerment of the target audiences so that they can do the following:

• Learning about the clout of the citizens in terms tracking, monitoring and influencing the process of community-related public policy making;

• Enhancing the cognitive skills based on sound argumentation, critical thinking and effective communication;

• Upgrading democratic attitudes and trends that spur the basic human rights responsible practices and the sense of accountability in a confident and committed manner.

 The Project Citizen curriculum is based on the study of a problem relating to public policy by four groups leading to designing an action plan to implement the suggested public policy. The groups present their work and findings in files in a portfolio during hearings reflecting the degree of studying and understanding how to design public policy. 

• You, as the president of the Moroccan Center for Civic Education, are currently working on civic education, and you are seeking to generalize and extend the clubs to many educational institutions, could you please elaborate?

 Actually, we are aiming at generalizing and extending the clubs of civic education to all the schools in a gradual fashion so that these clubs result in consolidating the grounds of the culture of citizenship education pursuant to the provisions stipulated in the National Charter for Training and Education on Civic Education and the memoranda issued by the Ministry of Education in this regard, and in harmony with the new orientations of the ministry and the transformations happening worldwide. We believe that the Moroccan school cannot be excluded because it endeavors to impart this education to the future generations; we are seeking in collaboration with all the stakeholders to develop and implement this education in a didactic manner in the schools to firmly lay the grounds for positive values for our future generations as you have stated in your question. 

• Where do the prerogatives of the Moroccan Center for Civic Education fit?

 The activities of the Moroccan Center for Civic Education are of open to all the cultural and educational rights because civic education matters to everybody. We think that the school is the right channel in view of the different categories that the school deals with, and in view of its role in shaping the citizen capable of running his own local, regional and national affairs and adapting to the shifts all the world over; we can then accordingly say that the prerogatives of the Moroccan Center for Civic Education are clear as I have pointed out in the earlier question, the Center works on clear objectives in its specialized educational area to contribute as much as lies in its power to train the individuals to interact positively with their environment.

 How responsive have the beneficiaries been?

 I should point out here a fact and extend my congratulations to all the teachers who have participated in and supervised monitoring and implementing the projects with their students, and who have demonstrated strong willingness,  responsiveness and educational maturity; and that’s what urges us in the Moroccan Center for Civic Education to deploy further efforts to live up to the expectations of these teachers that I am proud to collaborate with.

•  How can we consolidate the culture of value among generations that are still swinging between modernity and authenticity?

We participate along with other actors to plant the seeds of good values in our future generation, who will be called upon to carry along the path; the culture of values is in contradiction neither with authenticity nor with modernity; we are talking here about human and universal values relating to the human being in general; that’s why I think:  

1. The school is doing its job in this respect. For instance, the educational curricula that have been revisited have clearly highlighted the values of civic education across the board in harmony with the provisions of the National Charter for Education and Training;

2. The family should assume its full responsibility and help the school to reach the preset objectives, just a it should be aware of its complementarity with the school.

3. The civil society should preserve the assets of noble values because the world and the future are moving on the path of values; the progress of nations is dependent on the scope of these values in the community and the extent of advocating them.

• Could you please tell us about some activities that the Moroccan Center for Civic Education has been undertaking?

 We have been conducting intensive activities that we do not have enough time to elaborate on right now; but I can just mention a few by way of illustration:  

• Organising training sessions on behalf of trainers in Morocco, Egypt and Jordan so that they get to know about the various experiences to enrich the project;

• Organizing two summer institutes for the new graduate teachers in various teacher training colleges and regional teacher training centers;

• Training sessions on civic education for a large number of teachers;

• The implementation of Project Citizen in the MOE Academies of Casablanca, El Jadida, Settat, Ben Slimane ( Academy Chaouia Ourdigha), Souss Massa Daraa, Rabat, Khoumissat, Marakesh;

• Teacher training in civic education especially in the area of  Project Citizen and Foundations of Democracy;

• Organizing local, regional and national showcases;

• Training new regional coordinators.
   

• These are activities within Morocco, have you participated or attended other activities outside Morocco to introduce the role played by the Moroccan Center for Civic Education?

 Definitely, the Moroccan Center for Civic Education has set a role model for success as the students from the Delegation of Salé (Abderrahman Hajji Jnior Secondary School, under the supervision of Teacher Fatiha) representing Morocco were among the first to win the  prize in the Arab Civic Education showcase organized in Amman, Jordan. This award is considered an additional asset to the Moroccan Center for Civic Education. In addition to this, we have attended regional and international conferences on civic education organized by the Center for Civic Education in California and Morocco will participate through the Moroccan Center for Civic Education in the forthcoming World Congress on civic education where over fifty countries will participate, the objective of which is to share experience and expertise. The Moroccan Center for Civic Education will present its experience in the dissemination of the values of civic education in Morocco. 

• What are the future outlooks regarding civic education in the area of education and training? Is there an centralization within or without the area?

 We are very hopeful about the future in this area in order to implement civic education and we have attractive and ambitious programs in this regard. We have started from the Foundations of Democracy and have taken the example of the Responsibility and Justice. There are also other important concepts that we will unveil in due course. We are in the process of studying them and thinking about the most suitable mechanisms for implementation; we do not just operate within the area but we also operate outside it. In this respect, we have a very important experience with ‘Dar Attaliba’ (The student’s House). There are other upcoming projects with the organizations of the civil society.  

• A last word?

I’d like to address my sincere thanks to all those who participate in anyway with us to integrate this project; I’d like also to grab this opportunity to thank the daily “Rissalat Al Umah” for having kindly organized this interview and for all it has been doing to introduce the culture of civic education.