The Foundation Program
In keeping with Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa‘s strong commitment to heritage education, the Foundation put together the program ¨I Discover My Heritage¨, in partnership with the Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Sports, the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, and UNESCO. This educational program aims to bridge culture and education by promoting awareness and the transmission of heritage within schools.
Through discussions, research, on-site excursions, and discovery activities, secondary school students are encouraged to engage with their surroundings, explore and document the cultural elements that shape their heritage.
The Foundation, with its partners, develops educational kits to support students and their teachers throughout this educational journey. These kits include creative workshops, exploratory outings, and other initiatives designed to deepen students’ engagement with the subject.
The program continues through the publication of the magazine ROYA “رؤية.. إرث الأجداد بعيون الأحفاد”, which showcases the most notable creative works of the young participants in ¨I Discover My Heritage¨. The magazine features a rich variety of content, including interviews, reports, portraits, photographs, poems, stories, and comics. all centered around cultural heritage. It offers a space for expression where diverse visions and experiences intersect.
The program also includes a capacity-building component for teachers, introducing innovative approaches to enhance heritage education and make it more appealing and accessible to younger audiences.
The process
Contextualizing themes and heritage to Rabat
Adapting educational content
Editing and digitizing the kit
Training educators on how to use the kit
Distributing the kit to middle schools
Collecting student files
Local Heritage Awareness
Contextualizing the tools to the local heritage of the city of Rabat
Educational kit - activity sheets
Educational approach: Site and monument visits, research, discussions, teacher training
The Heritage Notebook
Educational tools for appreciating cultural heritage
The Committee
The program is carried out in partnership with :
The Foundation for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage of Rabat
The Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Sports
The Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication
UNESCO
Maison d’artisan
Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP)
With the contribution of :
The National School of Architecture-Rabat
The Higher Institute of Information and Communication
The National Institute of Fine Arts
The National Institute of Agricultural Research
The National Foundation of Museums
Publications
Teacher training and kit roll-out to Middle Schools
The Foundation and its partners held a training workshop for teachers on how to use the kit at 62 schools in Rabat, Temara and Salé.
Educators were introduced to the following topics:
- UNESCO’s World Heritage and the World Heritage Education program for young people
- Rabat, Modern Capital, Historic City: Sharing our Legacy
- “Discovering my heritage”
- Program deployment at Middle Schools
- Teacher kit and educational tools
Activities
Student activities revolve around five main action areas and are arranged in fact sheets:
Discussion
Activities suggest teachers conduct discussion sessions with students and lead these sessions towards issues surrounding Rabat’s cultural legacy and its preservation. The educational kit cards provide a variety of discussion topics and include additional background information for the teacher in the appendix.
Research
Children are encouraged to conduct research in and outside class, stimulating imaginations and curiosity. This work is to be exhibited and debated.
Practice activities
Exercises in the kit are designed to encourage children to discover their heritage in a novel way.
Visual sessions
Teachers are to prepare photos, objects or visual aids to share with students in class. This material will serve as a basis for
World Heritage site visits
Middle Schools in the program are to visit World Heritage sites during Heritage Month. Student activity sheets include visit questionnaires as well as in-class exercises in preparation for the visits.
