Rachid Belmokhtar, Minister of National Education, chaired the second session of the Board of Directors of the Education Academy in Guelmim last week.

This session, held at the academy's headquarters, was an opportunity to call for a multiplication of efforts and the strengthening of the skills of the various managers of the education dossier at the level of this region, with a view to equipping them with theoretical and technical tools and the necessary know-how so that they can propose new initiatives and achieve the objectives of the reform process of a key sector of the Moroccan economy.

Thus, during his speech, Mr. Belmokhtar stressed the need to open up to all stakeholders, including the administrative and teaching staff, unions, inspectors, and members of the Board of Directors, in order to establish a general diagnosis of the situation in the sector, with a view to finding the necessary remedies.

Abdelah Bouaarfa, director of the Guelmim academy, drew up the regional balance sheet for the implementation of the education sector, notably through the establishment of the means required for the success of this project, through the extension and rehabilitation of school establishments with the creation of 16 new school establishments, and the extension of middle and high schools for a budget of 70 million DH financed thanks to 27 partnership agreements with local actors. According to him, more than 60 thousand pupils have benefited from the "One Million Schoolbags" initiative, and 31 thousand from the school feeding programme.

During this session, the 2014 budget, estimated at 227 million DH, was adopted, of which 153 million will be allocated to investment and 74 million as an operating budget. This programme will have several priority actions which will focus in particular on expanding the school offer, maintaining the school space, strengthening school support efforts, as well as better governance in terms of operating expenses. The AREF of Guelmim-Smara covers five provinces spanning an area of 142,763 km2 for 60 communes, including 11 urban and 49 rural. The number of school establishments has reached 258, including 166 primary establishments, 52 secondary and 40 qualifying secondary. The total number of pupils from different backgrounds exceeds 29 thousand.