Nicknamed "Silicon Valley", which is synonymous with the term high-tech companies, and it is a unique university institution. .

The Programming and Coding Foundation operates 24 hours a day without professors, and was established by the OCP Group in order to meet the country's needs for technological expertise.

A university institution that offers free training through a project based on programming, innovation and computer systems development.

Official certificates are not required, and students are selected after logic, memory and motivation tests, after which they are tested in a transitional phase that is set to continue for a month, called “al-Masbah”, during which students immerse themselves in a new educational method that is completely different from what they are accustomed to in schools and other institutions.

No professors, departments and levels

On a visit to the "1337" foundation located in the phosphate city of Khouribga (the school is located in the cities of Khouribga and Ibn Jarir), Al-Jazeera Net closely examined how the foundation's students spend their time, how they organize on their own, and how they carry out their achievements on the basis of self-reliance and taking responsibility in independence and freedom, and they excel in developing Applications and games.

Fatima Al-Zahraa Guarouache, an educational officer in the technical and technical supervision team and also a programming student, told Al-Jazeera Net, "1337 new worlds, like I have never seen before, are not only a school, it is a revolution in education in Morocco and in Africa as a whole."

The teaching philosophy is governed in 1337 by the Global 42 Initiative, which was founded in 2013 by the initiative of the digital industry in France.

The teaching method of 1337 is based on peer learning or cooperative education, and Adnan Al Sagheer (from the school team) explains to Al Jazeera Net that the peer learning system does not depend on a professor, and it is based on cooperation between students to find solutions to the challenges they face.

Adnan adds that in the cooperative education system, the student is an educator and teacher at the same time, and the student gains self-reliance and independence.

On the home page of the 1337 website, a sentence reads in the Moroccan colloquial: "I am a coded, you are a coded, we are a codio" which means "I program, you program, we program", referring to cooperation and teamwork, and the school affirms in all its data that the key word to access is creativity.

Adnan Al-Sagheer in the Educational and Technical Supervision Team (Al-Jazeera)

Applications and entrepreneurship

The school, which began receiving students in 2018, consists of open spaces equipped with computers dedicated to work, other spaces for entertainment, and not far from the main building, the Foundation launched a laboratory to develop innovative entrepreneurship, company ideas and modern applications.

1337 students do not believe in the impossible, they say that they are open to existing technologies that will exist in the future;

Because the world of technology is constantly developing, and the skills they acquire help to find solutions to all problems.

1337 students consider that application development is the engine of digital life, and 1337 students have contributed to applications that have been used nationally, such as the “Masar” application, which is currently being adopted in education, and the “Our Protection” application that was launched by the Ministry of Health during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fatima Al-Zahraa Al-Mahdawi, who started her academic career with 1337 in 2019, says that she learned programming in advanced ways, and along with a team of her colleagues, she contributed to the development of many applications that help people.

Fatima was among the team that developed the application of "Masar" to advance the educational system in Morocco. Fatima Zahra, during her conversation with Al-Jazeera Net, considers that the methodology of work is based on overcoming the difficulties of the programs and finding solutions to all obstacles.

Fatima Al-Zahraa Qarawash, student and technical officer (Al-Jazeera)

As for Ayoub Elwi, he follows up his project from inside the school laboratory, Ayoub heads a company specializing in the manufacture and development of games. He believes that the environment of 1337 helped him to learn quickly, and that the approved structure and methods help to develop.

In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Ayoub said, "Lab 1337 is a space in which we work, hold our meetings and communicate with other project holders and business leaders for greater competitiveness and good integration."

Ayoub Alawi, a game developer from inside Lab 1337 (Al Jazeera)