A Bridge to Reading: New Training Methods Boost Women's Literacy

	USAID education program develops and implements teaching methods which simplify the approach to becoming literate in modern standard Arabic

Mastering the intricacies of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is challenging for any learner. Even for many Arabic speakers throughout the Arab world, MSA is almost a foreign language. This is particularly true in Morocco where the dialect, known as Derija, is quite different from standard Arabic and where many people speak Amazigh languages, unrelated to Arabic.  The difficulties faced by a person who has never had the opportunity to attend school in learning to decode in a foreign language are one explanation for the high drop-out rates that characterize Morocco’s literacy programs.

Addressing this critical issue, USAID and Morocco’s State Secretariat for Literacy and Non-formal Education (SSLNE) developed and are implementing teaching methods which simplify the approach to becoming literate in MSA.  USAID/Morocco introduced an innovative "bridge" program, training women to first read and write the Arabic alphabet in their native dialects and then transferring their new literacy ability with classes in MSA, the official, national language and the language of religion.

By learning first to use Arabic writing in the language they actually speak, the women are more confident and comfortable in participating in class. They attend class regularly and learn more quickly, with greater success and satisfaction.  Unlike the SSLNE programs, women rarely drop out of the “bridge” program.  Combining oral expression and active participation with more conventional literacy instruction, this USAID/Morocco program has achieved attendance and retention rates of over 90% within the pilot group of 400 women in the 16 target provinces.  An initial evaluation has shown that women completing the 60-hour bridge program have attained a level of literacy exceeding those normally achieved after roughly twice the time in the official program.

Besides literacy instruction, the USAID/Morocco Literacy Program focuses on informing women about Morocco’s new Family Code and helping them to use the Code to improve their lives and that of their families.  In commenting on the awareness- raising component of the Literacy Program, one woman said, “I was not in favor of that new legal status for women because I simply did not know what it was or how it was improving our lives. Now I think that every Moroccan woman should learn about its content."