School Project in Morocco: Constraints and Obstacles

The objective of this work is to undertake a socio-historical analysis of the "school project" (Projet d’établissement) (SP) in Morocco and to determine constraints, obstacles, and solutions to its conception and piloting. For this purpose, we combine an exploratory qualitative method and an analysis of documents from grey literature, models of SPs, and academic papers. For the qualitative analysis, we conducted a qualitative survey in 24 public schools and a focus group with persons in charge of SP in Morocco. Our results show that SP is instituted in Morocco by the National Charter, the Strategic Vision 2030, and the Framework Law 51-17. It is a regulatory tool that makes the school an autonomous actor and that can contribute to innovating and developing schools’ systems. However, even if 18 out of 24 schools have a SP, the majority mentioned the lack of financial resources, poor infrastructure, lack of training in SP, and absence of external support from partners as constraints and obstacles to the process of SP. The focus group gave more precision in this sense by identifying the absence of a clear framework of the SP; the absence of a real mapping of the actors involved, imprecision of the modalities for assigning responsibilities to each actor, and the lack of a common vision on the process of SP. Proposed solutions included improving the SP process, mobilization of all stakeholders and external support to schools, providing adequate financial resources, and training in the conception, piloting, and evaluation of SP.