Education in Morocco

Education In Morocco

Morocco gained independence from the French in 1956 and since then the Government of Morocco has embarked to implement comprehensive reforms in education and technical vocational training. Despite facing economic challenges in the 1990s and early 2000, the government continued concerted efforts to improve overall educational landscape. In 2006 the expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was 5.5 percent, higher than the education expenditure as a percent of GDP for Arab countries such as Oman, Kuwait and Egypt.

Since early 2000s the gross enrollment rates have been rising steadily for all levels of education. Completion rates at the primary level have increased from 57.8 in 2004 to 61.7 percent in 2006. Despite this improvement, Morocco’s education system needs to tackle gender disparity at all levels, high dropout and repetition rates, especially at primary and secondary levels, and increased pressure on the higher education to absorb the rising number of secondary graduates. Throughout Morocco, female illiteracy rate is higher than men's. The rate reaches 83 percent in rural areas, even 90 percent in some communities

Morocco is ranked 130th in the Human Development Index (HDI).It has an adult literacy rate of 52 percent in 2004. Although education completion and enrollment rates have improved, the possibility of achieving the MDGs for Morocco is uncertain.

In Morocco the education system offers the following three tracks:

1) The Modern track, which is the continuation of the French system

2) Original track, which focuses on Koranic teachings

3) The technical track, to have skilled workforce.