Theirworld

Global Youth Ambassador speaks at Morocco congress on education

By Samuel Opoku, an A World at School Global Youth Ambassador from Morocco

The Marrakech Educational Congress was held at SUP DE CO school (Ecole Supérieure de Commerce ) on October 18. The programme was organised by AIESEC Menara and its main aim was to tackle and find solutions to the numerous problems of the education system in Morocco.

It started with an interactive conference with four honourable speakers, three of whom are professors in the best Moroccan universities. The fourth speaker was the Public Affairs Officer of the United States Embassy in Morocco. Also present was the UNESCO youth representative for North Africa and the Middle East.

There was great interaction between the speakers and the delegates, who came from different universities to share their Ideas and give their potential solutions to improving education in Morocco.

Samuel addresses the Marrakech Educational Congress

I had the chance to be speak at this congress as a youth activist. I started by introducing myself and my colleague, Global Youth Ambassador Hanane Ait Ouakrim. I spoke about the role of the youth in nation-building. I emphasised that the time when youth stayed back as spectators was over and that it was time we put our energies, skills and expertise to good use in making the world a better place.

I talked about A World At School, Millennium Development Goal 2 and what we do. I then told them about the #UpForSchool Petition. The support we received was enormous.

Even before I finished my presentation, some delegates had started signing the petition with their smartphones. The distinguished speakers showed me their phones with their signed petitions right on stage and expressed support for this programme.

Hanane attended a committee on infrastructural development

They all promised to spread the news in their institutions – I consider this very important since these people have a lot of influence here in Morocco.

Later in the day, we had committee discussions. Every committee had a specific problem to tackle. I was in the first committee on New Pedagogies while Hanane was in the second committee on Infrastructural Development. The third committee was on the Role of Technology.

Every committee then came up with their resolutions and these were sent to the Moroccan Ministry of Education and UNESCO. This was the goal of the congress.