Bridge to Middle School

Strengthening the capacity of education stakeholders to implement student-centered curricula in Arabic, Science, and English in upper primary and lower secondary school.

Over the past decade, the Government of Morocco’s Education Vision 2030 and the Framework (Al-Itar) Law No. 51.17 have led to significant achievements in the education sector, allowing the national system for education, training, and scientific research to pave the way for a comprehensive education reform to achieve the objectives of the 2022-2026 Roadmap committed to quality public education for all. In this context, the Ministry of National Education, Preschool Education and Sports (MoE) has made sweeping and positive changes in the education sector. Enrollments have risen, teaching quality has improved, important curricular reforms have been enacted, and programs have addressed critical gaps in instructional quality and improved students’ mastery of reading and math in the primary grades. However, this ambition has yet to be fully realized. Test scores on international assessments have lagged, and girls (especially those in rural areas) and children with disabilities still face challenges in accessing equitable quality education. Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to learning loss across the globe, including in Morocco.

USAID RESPONSE

Bridge to Middle School supports the Ministry’s ongoing reforms to ensure students make the critical transition from primary to middle school, with particular attention to inclusion and equity, gender dynamics, the realities of education in a post-COVID-19 environment, and the growing need for responses to the challenges of climate change. Through Bridge, USAID will partner with the MoE to improve learning outcomes in Arabic, select science subjects (grades 4–9), and English (grades 7–9). In doing so, Bridge will better prepare the education system for a scale-up of high-quality instruction in key subject areas in both the upper primary and middle school grades.

The goal of the program is to improve the performance of MoE central directorates, provincial directorates (PDs), 90 pilot schools, and regional education adcaemies (AREFs) in three pilot regions in employing evidence-based pedagogies that promote continuous learning in select content areas, emphasizing critical-thinking skills. Bridge has three objectives contributing to this goal:

Objective One: Enhance the Moroccan education system’s ability to improve learning outcomes in middle school (grade 7–9) Arabic, English, and selected science subjects (Physics/Chemistry, taught as one subject, and Life/Earth Sciences (Biology and Geology), taught as one subject).
Objective Two: Enhance the Moroccan education system’s ability to improve learning outcomes in upper primary (grade 4–6) Arabic and science.
Objective Three: Enhance the Moroccan education system’s preparedness to scale up successful practices in these subject areas and grades.

EXPECTED RESULTS

Bridge will continue the development model shared between USAID and the MoE, and will serve as a pilot with experimental schools. It is anticipated the interventions piloted through Bridge will build a strong evidence base for the MoE to scale-up and implement the interventions in middle schools across Morocco. Expected results include:

Goal-level Result: An increased number of institutions demonstrating improved performance and teachers demonstrating improved pedagogical skills to implement high-quality instruction in target subject areas and grade levels.
Objective One Result: In the Bridge experimental schools, middle school learners achieve increases in proficiency in Arabic, English, Life/Earth Sciences, and Physics/Chemistry.
Objective Two Result: In the Bridge experimental schools, upper primary learners achieve increases in proficiency in Arabic and Science.
Objective Three Result: Implementation of policies and practices that support scaling up of interventions proven effective during the experimental phases of the Bridge program.