The members of the provincial council approved, in an ordinary session, a partnership agreement for the adoption of the Program for the Valorization of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants (PAM), developed between the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight Against Desertification, the Social Development Agency, and the provincial council of Khénifra.
This important program will require a budget of around 2.8 MDH, distributed between the provincial council (400,000 DH), Water and Forests (1.4 MDH), and the Social Development Agency (1 MDH). The program aims to improve the incomes of producers of aromatic and medicinal plants, such as thyme, lavender, rosemary, white or blue wormwood, and fennel, through the creation of a territorial dynamic for the development of production sectors, taking into account forest spaces and biological diversity.
To concretize this important program, producers will be organized under the entity of cooperatives with adequate support for the improvement, valorization, and support of production sectors through a rigorous evaluation of endemic species of high ecological value, and certification within the framework of the marketing of PAM products.
The said agreement will include, for the year 2015, the organization of workshops with stakeholders at the level of the concerned rural communes and forest cooperatives that will be involved in the PAM process, by creating nurseries for the promotion of said plants, with financial support, training, and technical assistance for project leaders. It will also allow for the sensitization of rural women, while favoring their insertion with the goal of economic growth for the communities.
The elected officials also approved a second partnership agreement between the Ministry of Health, the regional council of Meknès-Tafilalet, the provincial council of Khénifra, and the rural commune of El Kebab.
This concerns the construction, at the level of the locality of El Kebab, of a health center, a maternity ward, local health units, an analysis laboratory, and a radiology room. The total cost of this project amounts to nearly 4.6 MDH, of which 3 MDH will be financed by the regional council of Meknès-Tafilalet, 1 MDH by the provincial council, and 561,600 DH by the rural commune of El Kebab, within the framework of a loan that will be allocated by the INDH for 2015. The Ministry of Health, for its part, will be in charge of the development and monitoring of the technical studies of the project, the assignment of medical and paramedical personnel, and the installation of the necessary medical equipment.
The agenda included the intervention of the provincial delegate of national education, who gave a presentation on the progress of the 2014/2015 school year.
It emerges that the total number of enrolled students amounts to 75,392, including 43,137 at the level of 123 primary schools, 21,176 within 19 middle schools, and 11,079 in 14 high schools. The delegate recalled the evolution of scholarships awarded to students of the three cycles, the number of which amounts to 4,541 for the current school year, against 3,830 during the past school year. He stated that scholarship students were housed in 24 boarding schools, including 9 for primary, 6 for middle school, and 9 within high schools.
The number of classes, for its part, amounted to 2,484, including 1,637 for primary, 520 for middle school, and 327 for qualifying. Regarding the teaching staff, he indicated that 2,925 teachers were providing courses within the schools of the province, including 1,684 for primary, 701 within middle schools, and 540 in the various high schools.
