By Olivia Snaije

Creating textbooks today that lead teachers and students down a clear path, and that are engaging, current and dynamic as well? Not so easy. The Frankfurt Academy and the Goethe Institute, Morocco, are running a two-day workshop for publishers in Casablanca, Morocco on just this subject.

From July 2-3, 30 publishers from Tunisia, Libya, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria and Morocco — including Daou Attibar of the Tripoli International Scientific Bookshop and president of the Libyan publishers Association, and Nacéra Khiat, of Editions Sedia (which began as an Hachette imprint) — will attend workshops that will give new impetus to creating contemporary, quality, learning materials taking into account government guidelines.

Christina Zech, head of the sociology department at Klett Pubishers in Leipzig, Germany and Jens-Peter Becker, who specializes in industrial design and visual communication, will be tackling questions such as how to attract first-rate authors, developing didactic concepts for books, workbooks and online modules, or how to capture the attention of the public and buyers to products.