Education in Morocco - Primary Education

Primary Education

The primary education consists of 6 years for children of ages 6–12 years old. Students are required to pass Certificat d'etudes primaires to be eligible for admission in lower secondary schools.

The gross enrollment rates (GER) at the primary level have been consistently rising in 2000s. In 2007 the total GER at the primary level was 107.4 percent, with 112 percent for males and 101 percent for females. But the Gender Parity Index for GER was 0.89, which shows that the issue of gender inequality persists at the primary level. The repetition rate at the primary level is 11.8 percent; the repetition rate for males at the primary level is 13.7 percent and for females it is 9.7 percent and the rates are declining for the past few years for both genders. The dropout rate at the primary level in 2006 was 22 percent. Also dropout rates are higher for girls than boys, at 22 and 21 percent respectively. The dropout rates have been falling since 2003,but the government still needs to step up efforts to lower dropout the rate as it is still very high compared to other Arab countries, such as Algeria, Oman, Egypt and Tunisia.