Eleven-year-old Ayoub is smiling, reading and playing games with his classmates, just like any child his age. However, this seemed out of reach just a few years ago. Ayoub suffers from a condition called dyspraxia, a neurological disorder that makes it difficult to process motor tasks.

Around the world, children with disabilities, just like Ayoub, are often denied the right to quality education. Of the 150 million children with disabilities globally, an estimated 90 percent are out of school.

In Morocco, 66 percent of children and adolescents with disabilities are out of school because the education system lacks the resources to accommodate their needs. Out of the 1.4 million Moroccans with disabilities, only 19.6 percent complete primary education, 9.5 percent complete secondary education, and 1.8 percent reach higher education.

Despite the odds, Ayoub and his family were determined that his story will be different. With support from the USAID Reading for Success-National Program for Reading, that dream is becoming a reality.

USAID’s five-year Reading for Success program supports the Government of Morocco in developing a national literacy program to improve Arabic literacy skills in first through fourth grades. It seeks to improve classroom instruction; expand remedial and extracurricular reading opportunities at school, at home and in the community; and to improve national learning and assessment systems for reading and writing.

At his new school, Ayoub’s teacher, Hanane, quickly welcomed him.

Within two weeks of joining Hanane’s class and participating in the interactive reading program, Ayoub opened up, gained confidence, and finally started reading single words. By the sixth month, Ayoub was reading full sentences and even participating in school activities such as theater, games, and reading activities.

“Now I can read, count from one to 20, and I have friends,” said Ayoub.

Ayoub finished the school year with good grades in reading and a renewed sense of confidence. He spent the summer vacation practicing reading the second grade textbook Hanane gave him.

Through the Reading for Success program, USAID’s support of and collaboration with the Ministry of Education is contributing to improved learning outcomes across Morocco. Having trained more than 20,000 primary school educators and reached over 650,000 primary school students, the RFS program seeks to better prepare these students for future success.