Study finds rural schools lag behind as Morocco pushes education reform

As Morocco accelerates efforts to overhaul its education system, a new academic study has highlighted deep structural weaknesses at the core of rural primary schools, underscoring persistent inequalities between urban and rural education despite years of reform initiatives.

The study, conducted by Omar Eibourk of Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh and Karim El Aynaoui of the Africa Institute for Research in Economics and Social Sciences at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, was published on the ScienceDirect platform and relayed by the Policy Center for the New South.

Based on a nationwide field survey of 300 public and private primary schools in both rural and urban areas, the research is the first of its kind to use data from the Objective Social Development Index to assess school quality and efficiency.

The findings show that schools in rural communities are significantly less efficient than their urban counterparts, pointing to a widening education gap that continues to disadvantage children in rural areas. The average efficiency score stood at 0.63, meaning Moroccan primary schools operate at just over two-thirds of their potential capacity. While some schools perform well, the figure also indicates substantial room for improvement through better use of existing resources.

According to the study, low efficiency levels are particularly prevalent in rural schools, raising concerns over territorial equity in access to quality education. Researchers identified the presence of preschool education and upgraded infrastructure as key factors in improving school performance. The type of institution — public or private — and the socioeconomic status of families were also found to play a significant role in student outcomes.

The study stressed that education quality is shaped not only by curricula and teaching staff but also by the broader learning environment and the social context in which schools operate. In rural areas, schools continue to face deep-rooted challenges linked to scattered settlements, fragile living conditions and weak basic infrastructure, including limited access to clean water, electricity and paved roads.

These constraints contribute to what the study describes as “learning poverty,” defined as students’ inability to reach minimum proficiency levels despite regular school attendance. While learning poverty is a nationwide issue, its impact is far more severe in rural areas.

The findings come despite Morocco allocating 5.8% of its gross domestic product to education in 2022, well above the global average of 3.7%. Researchers argue that the core issue lies not in the level of spending but in how resources are distributed and adapted to the social and geographic realities of rural communities.

Official data illustrate the scale of the disparity: net enrollment in lower secondary education reaches 78.6% in urban areas, compared with just 44.3% in rural regions. The gap widens further at the upper secondary level, where enrollment drops to 12.2% in rural areas, versus 52.1% in cities.

Overall, nearly two-thirds of Moroccan students fail to meet minimum learning standards, pushing the national learning poverty rate to 65.8%, according to World Bank data from 2019 — a figure heavily influenced by conditions in rural schools.

The study’s conclusions align with results from the OECD’s 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which showed declining performance among Moroccan students. Math scores slipped from 368 points in 2018 to 365 in 2022, while reading scores dropped by 20 points and science by 12.

Researchers said these trends reflect not short-term fluctuations but deep structural deficiencies in the education system, with their impact felt most acutely in rural areas due to persistent territorial inequality and insufficient targeted investment.