The issue of schooling for rural girls was at the heart of a seminar recently organised in Tighessaline, in the province of Khénifra.

Initiated by the Committee for the Support of Rural Girls' Schooling (CSSF) in partnership with the Social Association for the Development of Tighessaline (ASODET), this meeting aims to foster contact, communication, and coordination between the various stakeholders in this field at the local level, according to the organisers.

This meeting also aims to establish a coordination committee bringing together the various stakeholders and parties concerned with the schooling of rural girls in this region in order to unify and coordinate actions and, consequently, put in place a common strategy to find appropriate solutions to this issue, they stated.

The speakers on this occasion were unanimous in stressing the importance of schooling in building any modern society, noting that development cannot be achieved without a knowledge-based society.

They also called for a revision of the conditions and eligibility criteria for the “Tayssir” programme, inviting the provincial delegation of National Education to accompany the change that has occurred in the targeting of the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), particularly the programme to combat poverty in rural areas.

In this sense, they called for the integration of Tighessaline among the rural communes concerned by the “Tayssir” programme, knowing that this commune is now among those targeted by the INDH in its second phase at the provincial level. This meeting, which was attended by representatives of the provincial delegations of National Mutual Aid and National Education, the social action division of the prefecture (DAS, INDH), and school principals, in addition to members of ASODET, was an opportunity to present the preliminary results of a survey on schooling in rural areas, carried out by the CSSF in the communes of Tighessaline and El Kbab.

Members of the CSSF also reviewed the objectives of the communication campaign launched by the committee under the slogan “Girls' schooling is their right, mobilising for them is our duty”.

The programme for this seminar included a series of workshops focused on “the pedagogical contract”, “community action”, “social mobilisation”, “the fundamental elements of social mobilisation”, “the knowledge strategy”, “the communication strategy”, and “the networking strategy”.