King Mohammed VI hands awards to top male laureates of 2017-2018 literacy Program

King Mohammed VI, Commander of the Faithful, handed over to five men, top laureates of the 2017-2018 literacy program, the Mohammed VI Prize at a ceremony in a mosque in Sale following the Friday noon prayers.

The prize winners are Ibrahim Houilat from the city of Dakhla, Younes Yaacoubi and Fouad Hilal from Fez, Abdelhak El Karouani from Essaouira and Omar Drissi from Larache.

 

The National anti-illiteracy program in mosques was launched after King Mohammed ordered in a speech in August 2000 that Mosques remain open to dispense literacy and religious and civic education courses based on a well-defined program.

From 2000 to 2018, more than 3 million people benefited from the Program to combat illiteracy in mosques. The Program is also followed on the Mohammed VI channel of the Holy Quran, broadcast twice a day, and on the website of the ministry of Islamic Affairs.

The plan for the period 2017-2021 aims to increase the number of beneficiaries of the national Program to combat illiteracy in mosques to 4.5 million people, or 1.5 million additional people.

The ministry of Islamic affairs, which supervises the program, is to launch a new experiment as of next year at some 1,000 locations in urban and rural areas.

The new experiment, which will target men and women under 50, will mobilize Ulema Councils, imams of mosques, preachers, morchidins and morchidates, in coordination with local authorities.

The Program has enabled mosques to regain their leading position in terms of guidance, spiritual orientation and literacy, as well as their role in building a democratic, modern, open society based on the rejection of exclusion and marginalization, and the struggle against poverty and ignorance.