Lauren Selking

4th November 2017

GCU 114

State of Education in Morocco

The United Nations Secretary-Generals global initiative on education consists of three

categories; putting every child in school, improving the quality of learning, and fostering global

citizenship. This report will seek to find the effectiveness of these three categories in Morocco.

Firstly, putting every child in school means that our goal is to educate. Education is the great

driver of social, economic and political progress. As people learn to read, count and reason

critically, their prospects for health and prosperity expand exponentially. (Priorities) The second

goal is to improve the quality of learning. Not only is keeping children in school a challenge it

becomes a larger challenge when there are poorly educated teachers and lacking school

necessities such as books. The third and final goals of this global initiative is to foster global

citizenship. Education transforms the way that people think, by educating them they will be

larger contributors to problems on a global scale.

The first statistic on the youth total literacy rate in Morocco was taken in 2004. The

literacy rate was shown at 70.458%, the last year the statistics were provided for was 2012 and
the literacy rate has risen to 91.221% according to the World Bank. *as pictured below*

As the literacy rate has risen overall the real accomplishment has been the rise in literacy for

women. As a very traditional country Morocco has a large Muslim population and before the rise

in larger cities most women were not educated, this is still a problem in more rural cities but

overall womens education is on the rise. The next two images will show the rise in literacy in

adult men (15 and over) and adult women (15 and over).
As demonstrated by the charts mens literacy in 2004 was at 65.707% and has risen to 80.383%

in 2012. Adult womens literacy was 39.62% in 2004 and has risen to 59.131%. Adult men and
womens both experienced a rise in literacy overall the men rising 14.676% and the women

rising 19.511%.

Another chart to consider is the persistence from the start of ones education to completion of

primary school. This is a crucial number in factoring in globally minded citizens. Students

should seek to continue their higher education but just having completed primary school will

lead to much more globally minded citizens versus a class mate they may have dropped out

midway through.

While Morocco has made great leaps and bounds in improving educational standards as far as

the goals set out by the United Nations is concerned they still have a lot of work to do in order to
be competitive with the world. This image pictured below was compiled in 2002, but a similar

pattern remains today. Morocco overall still has one of the lowest levels of youth literacies in a

global sense. In 2002 they ranked 182 out of 200 countries. Morocco has taken steps recently to

begin to overcome some of their educational deficits. As stated by the article Education by

USAID Over 340 teachers have been trained on the reading instruction approach and provided

with the instructional material kits. This information was provided with the start of the 2017

school year. While there is no data yet to prove whether it has been affective it is definitely a step

in the right direction.

Morocco faces a unique challenge in that they have a king. The king and their

government both have to come to an agreement when deciding on laws that will affect education.

Not always are both parties on the same page and it has made educational reform all the more
challenging. Morocco is partnered with USAID and the European Union and serval others that

all have educational goals in mind for the country. The USAID alone has promised $38 million

to aid the educational reform. (ICEF Monitor). With assistance from the global community

Morocco has an excellent chance at achieving the three educational goals set for by the UN.
 References

"Education | Morocco." U.S. Agency for International Development. October 04, 2017. Accessed
November 04, 2017. https://www.usaid.gov/morocco/education.

"Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above)." Accessed November 04, 2017.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.FE.ZS?locations=MA&view=chart.

"Literacy rate, adult male (% of males ages 15 and above)." Accessed November 04, 2017.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.MA.ZS?locations=MA&view=chart.

"Literacy rate, youth total (% of people ages 15-24)." Accessed November 04, 2017.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.1524.LT.ZS?locations=MA&view=chart.

"Morocco still aiming to boost education quality and access." ICEF Monitor - Market
intelligence for international student recruitment. May 13, 2015. Accessed November
04, 2017. http://monitor.icef.com/2015/02/morocco-still-aiming-boost-education-
quality-access/.

Newman, Mark, and SASI Group. "Youth Literacy." Map. In Produced by the SASI group
(Sheffield) and Mark Newman (Michigan).

"Persistence to last grade of primary, total (% of cohort)." Persistence to last grade of primary,
total (% of cohort) | Data. Accessed November 04, 2017.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.PRSL.ZS?locations=MA&view=chart.

"Priorities." Accessed November 04, 2017. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/gefi/priorities/.