"Issues related to social gender in linguistic education and teaching approaches for people with specific needs" is the theme of the 33rd annual conference of the Moroccan Association of Teachers of English (MATE), whose proceedings continue until 30 January in Marrakech.

This meeting, which is attended by some 300 Moroccan and foreign English teachers, aims to address issues related to social gender in the field of linguistic education, given their cultural and social dimensions and impacts.

It also serves as an opportunity to focus on language teaching for the benefit of people with specific needs, particularly people suffering from disabilities and the visually impaired, by guaranteeing all the necessary conditions to provide these teachers with quality training and supervision.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr Fouad Chafiki, Director of Curricula at the Ministry of National Education, stated that democratic building, respect for human rights, the consecration of citizenship values, and the moralisation of public life constitute the cornerstones of the construction and training of the citizen of tomorrow, one who will be in tune with the challenges and structural strategic development projects in their economic, social, human, and environmental dimensions in which Morocco has engaged.

It was therefore necessary for the educational system to be able to ensure proactive support for the changes that Moroccan society is experiencing, through the upgrading of the pedagogical framework, as imbued with values of citizenship and human rights, capable of allowing the translation of these supreme values into reality, he said.

He continued that the remarkable progress that Morocco is experiencing in the democratic and human rights fields as well as the consecration of the values of effective citizenship do not date from today, but are part of the wake of the general dynamic that Moroccan society is experiencing.

The President of the Moroccan Association of Teachers of English, Abdellatif Zaki, observed that this meeting constitutes an opportunity for participants to learn about the impact of social gender on the educational process, noting that the goal is to succeed in equipping everyone with the ability to respect gender difference and to recognise the right to equality.

It also serves as a meeting space for education and teaching professionals to exchange their experiences and knowledge, and to open up to the latest developments in the fields of teaching and technology.

Regarding the teaching of people with specific needs (disabled and visually impaired), Mr Zaki lamented the near-absence of adequate training for teachers of this social category as well as the deficit in necessary pedagogical and didactic means.