A New Access Program in Zagora

By Jamal Elabiad

Recently, many teachers of English in Zagora sent me e-mails asking why RELO directress Andrea Schindler visited the city on January16th, 2011. My reply was "I don't know!", but I promised to do my best to provide them with the reason behind her visit the soonest possible.

Soon after I finished writing an article on what will happen if the revolution comes to Morocco, I started contacting some reliable sources. This is the e-mail I sent them:

I was told recently that the RELO (Regional English Language Office) organized a meeting with Zagora teachers of English on January16th, 2011. Is that true? If yes, what was the subject of the meeting and why only a few teachers were invited to the meeting?

As far as they are concerned, the RELO directress paid last month a six-day visit to Access programs in Southern Morocco, including Ouarzazate, Zagora, Tinghir. In Zagora, she met with Access teachers, a high school teacher, and a ministry delegate. The aim of her meeting with Zagora Access teachers was to announce that the city will hopefully have a new Access program this year.

Zagora teachers of English (me included) know that it's the host institution, not the RELO that selects teachers to take part in the project, and that among the criteria the host institution should take into consideration while selecting teachers to join Access program are ELT excellence and willingness to commit to the project. But most of them do not know whether the host institution will select new teachers for the program or it will just keep the old ones.