1. GENDER AND LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN
MOROCCO
A Comparative Perspective
MOHA ENNAJI
Email: meannji2002@yahoo.fr
“People are the real wealth of nations—and
education enables them to live healthier,
happier and more productive lives…”
World Bank Education Strategy 2020

2. Objectives and Theoretical
Framework
Objectives: -reflect upon how to safeguard and support
gender equality and girls’ right to education as a basic
human right.
-discuss the scale of the legal provisions
relevant to gender equality, and debate the most critical
issues that require vital attention in the context of the
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
-propose a set of general recommendations and
actions to be taken for their consequential execution.
Theoretical Framework: The Intersectionality sociological
theory first highlighted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) and
then by (McCall 2001).

3. Introduction
First of all, let’s make a distinction between “gender” and
“sex”. Unlike sex, gender is not a physical attribute, rather, it
is a social construct determined by cultural beliefs, social
norms, attitudes, values, tradition, and practices of a given
society and refers to gender roles, functions and relations
between men and women (Ennaji & Sadiqi, 2011).
Gender gaps between men and women exist in all societies,
including the developed ones, and they are an outcome of
cultural, educational, legal, social, and economic
discriminations suffered by the female population.
Gender equality is attained only when all forms of inequity
are removed and equal opportunities are provided to women
and men so that they can equally contribute to and benefit
from economic growth and social development.

4. • Gender equality is a basic law that applies to all contexts
and policies, including those relevant to the right to
education. In education, gender equality should not be
confined to access only, but it should occur at all levels of
education. Gender equality necessitates equal
opportunities for both boys and girls to access learning but
also requires equality in the teaching and learning
activities, in the quality of education provided, in learning
achievements and eventually equality in employment
chances and earnings (Ennaji, 2008).
• Gender issues in education have started to gain importance
and to manifest themselves in many parts of the world,
including countries in the MENA region, albeit in varying
degrees (Taylor, 2004; Zittleman & Sadker, 2002).

5. In an ideal world, the gender approach should be
introduced into teacher training and the teaching
profession in all disciplines. However, this often
does not occur for four main reasons: i) lack of
instructor background knowledge, ii) lack of
interest in gender issues, iii) time constraints,
and iv) wrong beliefs that gender issues no
longer exist. Thus, attention should be given to
gender through individual subjects like language
teaching (Sanders, 2002; Cushman, 2005).

6. The Right to Education is a
Fundamental Human Right
Despite the fact that gender equality is a human right,
included in the Education For All (EFA) goals and the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), continuing
obstacles impede girls’ right to education, legally and
practically. In fact, the EFA Global Monitoring Report
(2010) mentions that “young girls accounted for 54% of the
global out-of school population in 2007. The proportion of
out-of school girls is highest in the MENA States”1. This
region is the most backward concerning gender equality in
education. The (2009) UNESCO report indicated that
women and girls are frequently excluded from education
while the persistence of gender stereotyping, especially in
high schools, often determines future job opportunities.

7. The 4-As Framework
 Education is an empowering tool and an indispensable
means to realize other human rights and a prerequisite for
achieving education for all and development.
 I shall use the “4-As framework” for indentifying and
clarifying obligation relevant to the right to education,
devised by the late Katarina Tomaševski, the first UN
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education.
 These are: Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability and
Adaptability demanding that education be generally
available, accessible, acceptable, and adapted to learners’
pedagogical and social needs. This implies that States
should make the right to education for girls and women
available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable (Zittleman
& Sadker, 2002). .

8. Education For All
• UNESCO has a firm determination to implement the principles of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). The Convention
prohibits any discrimination in the field of education “based on
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, economic condition or birth”. UNESCO
puts emphasis on action at the national level for generalizing
access to quality education for all without discrimination or
exclusion.
• The major goal of Education For All (EFA) is to “eliminate gender
disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and
achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on
ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic
education of good quality". Despite the improved situation
towards gender parity in education, gender discrimination persists
in many countries of the MENA region, mainly in higher
education.

9. Hurdles to girls’ access to and success
in education
• Several factors hinder gender equality in the education
sector. UNESCO Institute of Statistics groups them into
the following main categories:
• Socio-economic factors, such as poverty, direct school
costs, working children, underage marriage, or cultural
factors that impact the choices of families and students,
such as parents’ level of education, attitudes to girls’
education, girls/women’s roles, traditional/religious
beliefs, etc. (Ennaji, 2008)
• Political and institutional factors, such as education
policies determining budget allocation, quality of syllabi,
stereotypes in curricula/ textbooks, school context,
distance to home, school canteens, sanitation facilities,
teachers’ attitudes and practices, school security, etc. See
(Taylor, 2004; Cushman, 2005; Ennaji, 2005).

10. Facts of life
• Weak implementation of free and compulsory education;
• Low enrolment and high school drop-out rates are observed for
girls.
• Most MENA societies have cultural restrictions that might hamper
girls’ education
• Poverty is a major obstacle that reduces girls’ equal access to
education, especially in rural areas. Other hurdles include early
marriage, distance from school, cultural attitudes and patriarchal
ideology (Ennaji & Sadiqi, 2011).
• Women are absent or barely present in decision making positions.
• School costs prevent parents from sending their children to
school. Sometimes parents do not even register their children
after birth to avoid having to send them to school.
• Girls’ retention in schools is an equally serious issue to access.
There are high drop-out rates, mainly during the transition from
primary to secondary levels.
• In some countries, mixed education is disallowed..

11. The Cases of Sudan, Yemen and Jordan
• For example, in Sudan and Yemen, the situation is particularly
bad: In Sudan, 45% of children of school age are not schooled.
As a result, literacy rates of women in the region are
approximately 55%, according to the latest report of UNDP.
• In Sudan, the reasons are linked to civil war and Sudan's dire
economic context - as well as to the parents’ mentality that
“forces their daughters to stay at home to prepare for their
real life, their married life"
• Similarly, in Yemen, children have to be taught in classes of a
hundred or more because of lack of education infrastructure
and poor financial resources. The Yemeni conservative society
often objects to the girls being educated by male teachers
and to mixed schools.
• In Jordan, enrolment is high reaching 86 percent; however,
girls drop out in secondary school because of underage
arranged marriages; many girls are pressurized into marrying
young (see Sadiqi & Ennaji, 2010).

12. Islam Encourages Women’s Education
• In fact, Islam encourages girls as well as boys to educate
themselves. We must be careful not to confuse real Islam
with the prevalent form of twisted Islam. Contrary to the
common perception, Islam emancipated women and gave
them their deserved respect.
• The West did not give women the right to vote till early
1900s whereas Islam did this 1400 years ago.
• Unfortunately many people in the Middle East and in other
parts of the world, where Islam is practiced feel that women
do not need education. This is contrary to Islamic beliefs and
what the Prophet has written and said. Islam specifically
says that women should be treated equally and with respect
(Ennaji ,2012).

13. Remedial Action
• As mentioned earlier, the main causes behind hurdles
to girls’ education are often poverty, tradition, and
patriarchy favouring boys’ education, underage
marriages for girls, as well as absence of relevant laws.
To combat this type of discrimination will necessitate
major reforms of legislation, policy, in order to
guarantee equal access to all levels of education.
• In addition to legal and education reforms, awareness
raising on gender issues among decision-makers,
teachers, parents, students, as well as the general
public is necessary in an attempt to fight against
gender-based legal, social, cultural, attitudinal
discriminations.

14. Morocco’s Commitment to Girls’
Education
• Morocco is fully committed to the international human rights
principles and standards. All the texts quoted from the Moroccan
amended constitution, The National Charter, and The National
Agenda are compatible with article number 1 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
• Morocco ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 2003, recognizing
women’s rights as inviolable human rights and combating all types
of discrimination against them. In 2008, Morocco withdrew all its
reservations about CEDAW, in a speech made by King Mohammed
VI, with the aim to enhance the legal position of women on the
basis of the principle of equal opportunity and the application of
international declarations ratified by Morocco. This decision may
be regarded as an important indication that Morocco is
committed to gender equality and to combating all sorts of
violence against women (Ennaji & Sadiqi, 2011).

15. The Charter for Education and
Training (2000)
• In Morocco, the most noteworthy public policies
concerning gender equality in education are the Charter
for Education and Training (2000) and subsequently the
Najah Emergency Plan (2009) which was put into effect in
order to speed up the attainment of the Charter’s goals.
• In addition to combating illiteracy, upgrading the quality
of education, and improving schools’ infrastructure, the
Charter emphasized the generalization of education and
its compulsory aspect in order to eradicate gender gaps,
especially in rural areas which suffer from the highest
rates of gender inequality. In order to attain these
objectives, the Charter implemented various measures,
namely:

16. • adopting a gender approach in the State’s budget;
• revising textbooks in an attempt to eliminate gender
stereotypes;
• adopting a gender perspective in the textbooks;
• scholarships for female and male students;
• providing transportation to school to girls residing in rural
areas;
• building more schools, canteens and boarding schools to
foster girls’ enrolment;
• distributing one million school bags to students, nearly half
of whom are girls;
• giving flour and oil to parents who send their children to
schools;
• integrating human rights and citizenship education in the
education sector, including curricula, syllabi, academic
books and programmes;
• appointing the central commission for human rights as a
coordinating body in charge of the programmes of
education.

17. The Najah Emergency Plan 2009-2012
• The Najah emergency plan, was adopted in 2009, as a
national strategy, to step up the application of the Charter
and attain its objectives. Mainstreaming gender in education
is one of the major goals of this strategy. The plan started by
a thorough assessment of the gender situation in order to
determine the issues and pinpoint realistic goals. Gender
equality, which is politically and financially supported by the
State, has been promoted through several programmes.
• Existing projects focus on limiting drop-out rates, reviewing
syllabi and textbooks, mainstreaming gender and training
teachers on gender issues with emphasis on rural zones. The
Najah emergency plan also targets building 600 boarding
schools, providing 650 school buses, and rising the number of
scholarships and canteens by 8 times, helping more girls to
attend school.
• The central goal is to make education accessible for all and
guarantee gender equality.

18. This Goal was Realized through 3 Initiatives
1-The “Million District Initiative”: which focused on basic education
in urban and rural areas.
2-To facilitate compulsory education direct financial assistance was
provided to poor families. 280,000 students (girls and boys)
benefited from this programme during the school year 2009 –
2010, which led to a remarkable increase in the enrolment rates in
elementary schools (10.5%) and a 71% fall in the drop-out rates.
3-Distributing school meals, uniforms and providing transportation:
1,024,105 students benefited from school meals while 86,422
benefited from uniforms during the 2009 – 2010 school year.
School transportation was provided in collaboration with local
partners. This programme also aimed at increasing the number of
scholarships.
• Considerable progress towards gender equality in education has
been made due to initiatives taken by the government and to the
efforts of civil society associations in implementing the mid-term
strategic workplan. However, these endeavours still need to be
enhanced to guarantee gender equality in education.

19. General Recommendations
• Carry out quantitative and qualitative research and studies at
national and regional level on the gender perspective,
analyzing major problems and issues of gender equality in
education.
• Support national efforts to revise and reform school textbooks
and curricula in order to remove gender stereotypes
• Emphasize the quality of education. Making basic education
free and compulsory is helpful, but it does not really solve the
dilemma of drop-outs, caused by the poor quality of education
provided which does not always correspond to the real needs
of the learners.
• Encourage cooperation between the public and private sectors
in providing good-quality education. Cooperation should also
involve civil society; excellent results can be achieved if there is
cooperation and steady communication between them all and
local communities.

20. • The sensitization of public opinion on gender issues should be
accelerated through the dissemination of information, studies and
research findings, etc.
• Learning from other experiences and devising strategic workplans that
correspond to the needs of students is essential to achieve good results.
Some good practices that have contributed to the improvement of the
education systems in the region are: school mapping; decentralizing the
education system; simplifying entrance procedures to schools; providing
financial aid and scholarships;
• Reintegrating school drop-outs into the formal education system and
adapting education to suit their needs;
• Training policy-makers, planners, teachers and other education
personnel in gender sensitive teaching and learning practices.
• Providing training activities on gender mainstreaming, especially for
Trainers of Trainers (TOT) who can scale up training at country level,
support training centres, develop training kits.
• Establishing a unit within the Ministry of Education to be responsible for
gender mainstreaming at all stages of intervention: diagnosis, planning,
programming, implementing, monitoring, evaluating, and capacity
building on gender equality and mainstreaming.
• The participation of men in the promotion of gender equality is very
important: gender equality is not and should not be seen as a women’s
issue.

21. Promoting Gender Equality in English
Language seem to pay less attention to the
-Many researchers in the field of ELT
Teaching
gender issues in language teaching. This is equivalent to ignoring the
social context of learners since English teaching does not occur in vacuum
but it is contextualized in a social environment. Since gender dynamics is
one of social phenomena which takes place in the classroom, it is
significant for English teachers to pay attention to the gender dimension.
One of the gender issues in the area of ELT is the sexist language resulting
in the gender bias.
-Research has revealed that male and female experiences in school
contexts can be greatly different. These different experiences usually
make women feel less confident, pushes them to contribute less to the
class and to be regarded as less capable students.
-By examining your teaching techniques with regard to gender issues, you
will become more sensitive to all students in your class and become
better positioned to relate to gender differences, disabilities, and other
nontraditional orientations. Cultural specificities and differences in age or
physical ability can play a major part in a student’s ability to succeed.

22. Recommendations for promoting gender equality in
English Language Teaching
-Try to use course material that clearly includes women and
men.
-Call on shy students who don’t raise their hands.
-Allow enough wait time before students respond to a question
you have posed. Female students tend to take longer before
replying.
-Give Encouragement to female and male students.
Frequently, women are not given the same amount or type of
encouragement and praise as are men. They are given short
“yes”, or “uh-huh’s” and nods, while men are given verbal
praise or are encouraged to work harder. This different
treatment can be very damaging.
-Become aware of your comments to your students regarding
their questions, answers, work etc.
-Concentrate on challenging and supporting them all equally.

23. More Recommendations
-Monitor Interruptions and raise students’ self-confidence
Studies show that girls tend to get interrupted more frequently than boys.
When interruptions are frequent, students especially females, will choose not
to speak and tend to lack confidence in their abilities.
-Monitor Student Interactions to dissuade activities, comments, and jokes
that reflect stereotyping or bias, so that the classroom climate can become
supportive. Sexist jokes and analogies are inappropriate. Other jokes based
on race, color, ethnicity, e.g., jokes about Berbers, Jews, blacks, disabled
people, or Christians are also inappropriate.
-Regularize forms of address : calling boys by their last name but girls by
their first name or vice versa is delicate. Use the same form of address for all
your students to imply that all students in the classroom have the same
status.
-Use inclusive language as an important acknowledgement of the presence
of girls in your class. Use gender inclusive language such as “he” and “she”
interchangeably, or find non-gender specific terms to refer to people. Find
substitutes for terms that exclude women or others from the content of your
class, e.g., substitute “chairperson”, for “chairman”, “workforce” for
“manpower”, etc.

24. Conclusion
Two years to the 2015 deadline fixed by the international community,
it is today more vital than ever before that every endeavour must be
made and that laws and policies be improved and implemented, if girls
and women in the MENA region are to exercise their right to education.
All human beings, men and women, regardless of gender, age, or race
deserve good-quality education. Any attempt to make excuses of
whatever sort is unacceptable. "Culture” or “Tradition" is just a pretext
to subjugate people. One would find it impossible to quote anything in
the Hadith (sayings) of the Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) or in the Holy
Quran that allow or demand minor education for women.
Becoming more aware of the role gender plays in your classroom will
help you to understand all of your students better, and developing
sensitivity to the gender implications of the language you use in class
will help you and your students achieve greater teaching and learning
results.

26. ‫شكرا‬
Tanmmirt ‫تانميرت‬
Thank you