An excellence scholarship programme is the result of a partnership agreement signed on Thursday, 10 January, by the new executive director of Amendis Tangier, Bruno Collard, the president of the Sanady Foundation, Kacem Bennani Smires, and the president of the educational affairs department at the Tangier-Asilah delegation of the Ministry of National Education, Abdelilah Fizazi. According to those in charge of the project, the aim is to help and support 10 university students and 40 school pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in their studies.

Furthermore, as a first step, some 30,000 DH will be awarded over three years to 10 deserving students in order to "encourage them to continue their higher education in good conditions at public higher education institutions in Morocco," states the CEO of Amendis Tangier, Jean-Michel Tiberi.

These students were selected by the prefectural delegation of the Ministry of National Education of Tangier-Asilah in close collaboration with its two other partners, based on specific and well-defined criteria. The monitoring of this aid and the support for the students benefiting from these excellence scholarships will be provided by the Sanady Foundation, which has distinguished itself since its creation in 2006 by the Delassus Group through its socio-educational project dedicated to poor pupils in public schools.

Similarly, as a second step, an excellence scholarship programme has been set up to support and help some 40 deserving pupils from the Al Fath school in the popular Béni Makada district. With a total budget of 300,000 DH, this programme aims to "strengthen the academic level of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and give them solid foundations to continue their studies," according to the officials at Amendis Tangier.

It should be noted that this programme will support the 40 beneficiary pupils during their last three years of primary school. The aim is to help them during these three years with remedial classes in French and mathematics provided by national education teachers. As part of this agreement, pupils will be able to attend up to 4.5 hours of remedial classes per week.

The three partners, including the Sanady Foundation, are seeking through the conclusion of such agreements "to increase the number of pupils benefiting from academic support," stresses Bennani Smires, noting that in 2011 nearly 1,900 children benefited from the academic support programme managed by the Foundation, and adding that "we want to reach the number of 3,000 beneficiary pupils this year."