Strengthening the Textbook Production Chain in Morocco
Study Conclusions and Recommendations
The Ministry of Education (MoE) took a bold step when, in 2001–2002, it decided to open up the process of textbook development to the principle of competition among publishers. The vision was that publishers would submit their textbooks for approval by the MoE, and the best of the approved textbooks would be selected by each user. The objectives of this study were set out in a document agreed upon with the Curriculum Department of the Ministry of Education (MoE) in April 2016. In brief, the objective of the study was to analyze the textbook chain and recommend options for improvement, in order to better reflect the policy described in the National Charter of 2001.
The fieldwork for this new study was carried out in June 2016 by a team of specialists in textbook policy as well as textbook and general publishing, production, and distribution. While the work of the research team that conducted its analysis in early 2015 was focused exclusively on educational materials for early reading instruction in Arabic, the fieldwork conducted in June 2016 expanded this focus to review the textbook procurement chain in general, for all grades and subjects, with the mission of producing concrete recommendations on how to strengthen the textbook procurement system in Morocco overall.