The Moroccan government is making concerted efforts to improve the nation’s education system and to allow for the greater provision of schooling to all students.  Currently the government officially dedicates about a quarter of its annual budget to education in Morocco, but because almost half of the population is of school age, resources are stretched way beyond their limits.

Literacy levels in Morocco are quite poor with 64.1% of the male population aged 15 or over able to read and write and only around 39.4% of females over the age of 15 fully literate.  Naturally enough, in poorer and more rural areas these figures are even higher as families have restricted access to schools and teachers and have limited resources with which to send their children to school.

In Morocco’s main towns and cities such as Rabat, Casablanca, Tangier, Marrakech, Fes and Meknes the schools available and number and quality of teaching staff are far higher than in the more rural or less well developed areas of Morocco and as a result the standards of education available in these areas in Morocco is higher as are the literacy levels of students.

State schooling in Morocco is compulsory for all children for nine years from the age of 6 to 15; however not all parents can or do abide by the law.  Where families have limited resources and both male and female children the boys will always be sent to school ahead of their sisters, also, in families where children are required to assist their parents with their day to day work many days schooling will be lost.

Both primary and high school tuition is free; the only costs parents have to face are transport and basic school supplies.  Once children reach the secondary part of their education that can choose or be streamed into either technical and vocation or academic studies which will dictate which university, college or further education institutes they then have access to apply to.

Expatriates living and working in Morocco almost always favour a private international schooling alternative for their children so that they do not have to learn Arabic and French in order to attend and where schooling methods and standards are closer to that which they and their children are used. 

In all the main cities there are British, French and/or American schools for example – there’s the American School of Rabat in the capital city for example or the American School of Tangier, Ecole Adrien Berchet, Colegio Ramon y Cajal, English College of Tangier, Lycee Regnault or the Instituto of Cervantes de Tanger in Tangiers teaching the American, British, French or Spanish curricula, Casablanca has international schools too as do all the major international employment centres in Morocco.

Expat parents should examine the options available to them and the fees that a given school charges before committing to send their child to a specific educational establishment.