Today we visited a private school called Alyaqada School in Sale just across the river from Rabat. The students were very smart and focused just like the public students. The big differences I found were in the resources the school had and in the class sizes. The private school had projectors, laptops in the classrooms and was a new building. The public school had decent science equipment but had minimal technology and no wifi. The class sizes in public schools are about 40-50, while in the private about 25-30.
Following the school visit we had lunch at a cafe on a boat. The location was great for the view but the food was average except for an amazing passion fruit soufflé.
Once we finished lunch we headed of again in our van full of American teachers to Ecole Normal Superieure. ENS is the the teacher training university for Morocco. We had an interesting dialogue with the students and professors about teacher evolution and technology in the classroom.
After our day of school visits some of us chose to find a restaurant with a little panache. We came up with Restaurant Dinarjat set in a Riad in the Medina. Just finding involved asking folks for directions and being led down dark alleys. The entrance door was like a scene from Lord of the Rings with a big heavy wooden door and a little peep door. Once inside we were treated to another amazing meal and live entertainment.
Coming back from the restaurant we meandered through the Medina which has a different vibe at night, mellow and bit edgey but intriguing.