Project Name: National Program for Reading

Project Period : 2018-2021

USAID and Morocco’s Ministry of National Education, Professional Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research (MOE) created a five-year, $19.3 million support initiative that builds the MOE’s capacity to design and deliver a national early grade literacy (reading and writing) program.  As part of USAID-Morocco’s Reading for Success Program (RFS), the National Program for Reading (2017-2022) will strengthen the Arabic Language Curriculum in Grades 1-4, and take experimental lessons and results to scale throughout public education. In order to achieve national scale-up, NPR will assist the MOE in extending Grade 1 and Grade 2 reading programs developed through the Read for Success – Small-Scale Experimentation (RFS-SSE) project. NPR will be introducing writing (balanced literacy) in Grades 1-2 in 2017-2018, and designing a full Grade 1-4 literacy program that aligns with new curricular goals for the Arabic language.  In support of teachers, NPR will help MOE develop in-service and pre-service training programs, enhanced by coaching and distance training.

To support early grade literacy, NPR will also assist MOE in developing extra-curricular enrichments that remediate and extend student reading exposure, while limiting learning losses over the summer vacation months.  NPR will be subject to an impact evaluation, with results used to improve NPR and national education services delivered at the district and academy levels.  NPR will train MOE staff in the use of continuous assessment for ongoing improvement of teaching, learning and supervision.