COVID-19 Powerful Lessons for Morocco and Other Third World Countries (2)

     Without a shadow of a doubt, as soon as COVID-19 is over, all countries will be on the verge of a looming and harsh economic crisis. Many big corporations and businesses have declared bankruptcy. Millions of people have lost jobs and many countries, particularly in the third world, will are unable to cover the economic recession and its ensuing social predicament especially with the already accumulating foreign debts. Many experts claim that conceivably only advanced countries will be able to survive and recover from this crisis insofar as they rely on industrialization and technology whereas underdeveloped countries will have to face the repercussions of their precarious and unreliable economic and educational policies. This brings us to the necessity of revisiting our economic systems and questioning our educational and value system.

    To begin with, it is high time for countries in the third world to discontinue their dependency upon and colonial ties with the west. The only way for these countries to prosper is by being fully independent and by channeling policies that would take into account the nature of the country and the quality and quantity of resources available. Such a transition to an autonomous and closed economy would take years but it is worth it. Experience tells us that countries with a solid and autonomous economic system have higher chances of surviving and recovering from financial recessions. As a matter of fact, perusing a closed economy doesn’t mean cutting ties entirely with the rest of the world and stopping economic exchanges but simply means having the ability to attain a higher degree of local development and therefore improve standards of life and more importantly be relatively immune to global market volatility.

    

       
On the educational level, state educational policies should be reoriented towards promoting quality education via encouraging creativity, scientific research, entrepreneurship, and using ICT. In Morocco for example, as soon as schools and universities were closed due to COVID-19, the ministry of education has resorted to distance online teaching to sustain learning. As interesting as it may seem, unfortunately, such an initiative does not align with reality. Thousands of students are unable to access the internet and those who can are often clueless as to how to use and process online lessons. With no adequate extensive training on distance learning and the use of technology, teachers themselves find it extremely hard and time-consuming to present their lessons online. Therefore, perhaps it is high time we keep up with the age of technology and think about ways to digitize our education.

     When it comes to quality education that is another issue. Amid the outbreak of COVID-19, the demand for medical supplies and diagnostic equipment like Lab screening tests kits, lab confirmation test kits, intensive care beds, as well as medical masks and gloves has drastically increased. Most countries including Morocco, unfortunately, will have to import this equipment from abroad simply because their educational systems have failed to yield fruits. While in the west engineers, manufacturing corporations, laboratories, and scientific research institutions are materializing education into concrete tools and equipment to deal with the dilemma of COVID-19, one has to question the role of scientific research institutions, engineering schools, and industrial corporations in third world countries in resolving problems. Most would agree that third world countries, including Morocco, do not suffer from the lack of creative brains and entrepreneurs, or else we will not find many Moroccans and African scientists leading top scientific research institutions and initiatives across the world. It is rather a question of resources and quality education. 

    The purpose of education besides teaching values is to promote creativity, skills, critical thinking, and inventions that would improve human life.  Indeed, such a failure of the education system is primarily due to the lack of scientific research and the destitute low state budget allocated to the education sector and health care.

   the COVID-19 pandemic continues to expose realities about our societies and has painfully unearthed our precarious and sterile education and health care system. A radical change is needed starting with reordering priorities and allocating higher budgets to education and health care and strengthening health infrastructure. No renaissance would ever happen without prioritizing scientific research and ensuring quality education. In Morocco now, we have realized that mediocrity and nonsense won't save us. Years of investing in the entertainment industry instead of science and education and promoting festivals, banalities only seems to have backfired

     The COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us that investing in education, scientific research, and literacy means investing in people and the wellbeing of our society as a whole and value system in general.  A bad educational system and a non-oriented and entertainment-based media have far worse repercussions than just the inability to create and innovate but it has created a society of mob mentality. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak and despite the government's early preventive measures and enactment of lockdown and curfew after 7 pm, many Moroccans are still unaware of the threats lying ahead and continue to break rules of safety and sanitary measures. With mob mentality and the absence of social awareness and in a country where many people lack social sensitivity and moral judgment, dealing with calamities proves to be a real challenge.

    What happened in Tangier, Sale, and Fez when crowds of dozens of Moroccans took to the streets supplicating God despite the enforced lockdown, is a byproduct of our state policy in general and therefore they are not to blame. It is true that in third world countries ignorance, illiteracy, and the herd mentality are dominant but it is, apart from any conspiracy theory, the product of government policies over the years. Years of promoting banalities and glorifying the role of artists, singers, celebrities on official media, and social media alike have led to this herd mentality. Now everyone is realizing the role of scientists, doctors, and professors as the foundation of our society and the true weapons of mankind in the face of calamity. Yes, entertainment is good but priorities need to be placed in the correct order.