Announcement of Eight Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars IDA Credit to Morocco for an Education Project on August 19, 1971

• INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION 1818 H STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IDA Press Release No. 71/35 Subject: $8.5 million IDA credit to Augus t 19 , 19 71 Morocco for an education project The International Development Association (IDA), an affiliate of the World Bank, has extended a credit equivalent to $8.5 million to the Kingdom of Morocco to assist in financing educational research and teacher training, upgrading of scientific and technical education in secondary schools, vocational snd agricultural training, and technical assistance. The latest credit is the twelfth operation in Morocco by the Bank • and IDA. This is the second credit wade by IDA for education in that country. The first credit of $11. 0 million was extended in 1965, to assist in financing the construction and equipment of 21 secondary schools. Enrollment at all levels of education has grown considerably during the last decade. The most urgent need now is for modernization, increased efficiency and higher quality to ensure that the sector will effectively produce an adequate supply of trained manpower for the private and the public sectors of the economy -- sufficient also to enable the gradual replacement by Moroccans of the great numbers of expatriates in middle and high level posts. To cope with this variety of needs the project which the new IDA credit will help to finance consists of many different items. It includes: -- Construction, equipment and furnishing of a new National Institute • of Pedagogy at Rabat, which will be "'resportsible-·ror res2arch into the structure, content and techniques of teaching, coordination of training of /more 1 IDA P.R. No. 71/35 -- Morocco -- education • - " L - primary and secondary school teachers and advanced courses for teachers and supervisors. -- Construction, equipment and furnishing of a new Higher Teacher Training College at Rabat, which will provide one-year post-graduate courses fo·r teacher-trainees who will teach in upper level secondary schools, and which, as from 1975, will train approximately 300 senior secondary teachers per year. -- Construction, equipment and furnishing of six new Regional Teacher Training Colleges, which will be located at Oujda, Meknes, Kenitra, Fes, Marrakech and Tangiers. These new colleges will have a total enrollment ·of approximately 4,320 students and an output of 1,200 lower level secondary school teachers per year. -- Science laboratories, including equipment and furnishing for six existing general secondary schools, which as extended, will have a total of 1,300 science students at upper-secondary level and which will allow 400 students to become science graduates annually. -- Additional equipment for 10 existing technical secondary schools, which will in traduce an advanced course at the upper level of secondary education leading to a "baccalaureat en mathematiques et techniques", and which will provide education for a total of 2,400 students of whom 450 will graduate per year. -- New equipment and furnishing for 13 existing commercial secondary schools, which will introduce advanced courses leading to a "baccalaureat" in economics, and which will provide education for 3,400 students with an output of 1,200 graduates per year. -- Construction, equipment and furnishing of two new vocational • training centers. These centers will increase the supply of skilled labor for industry. -- Construction and equipment for a new Department of Veterinary Medicine which will introduce a six-year course of veterinary training into the existing Institute of Agronomy "Hassan II" in Rabat. The new department will train about 25 veterinarians per year. -- Extension of the Royal School of Forestry at Sale which will introduce a new two-year course for the training of field agents as a supplement to the already existing training of field assistants. Forty field agents are expected to graduate each year. -- Technical assistance which will provide for the services of two architects and a procurement specialist. These experts will assist the Moroccan Government in the execution of the project and in the maintenance of school buildings. The toal cost of the project, which is scheduled for cumpletion in 1974, is estimated at the equivalent of $13.5 million. The IDA credit • represents about 63% of the total project cost. The credit has been extended to the Kingdom of Morocco for a term of 50 years, including a 10-year period of grace. The credit is interest free, but carries a service charge of 3/4 of 1% per annum to meet IDA's administrative expenses. - 0 -