Blog 2: Ability or Social Status: Schooling

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    Something I noticed among our travels around Morocco that held consistency was the public school system. From the surface, all of the primary schools looked well-maintained and very functional. We often passed just as children were let out from school, and they usually looked happy to be there, joking with their friends and behaving just like kids do in American public schools. As someone who attended a subpar Title I public school in inner-city Atlanta, I'm well aware of the disparities in education and resources between public and private schools in the region. 

   Upon doing research, I learned that public school is available for free to all children in Morocco, and not dependent on their nationality or migratory status (UNHCR Morocco, 2026). Additionally, refugees are able to apply for financial assistance in the case they need support for funding schooling-related costs, such as transportation, food, and school supplies. While this appears to be a good start, coupled with the nice buildings, the Moroccan public school system also suffers from quality issues. There is significant overcrowding and underfunding, and the techniques used for schooling, originating in the colonial beginnings of the country, favor rote memorization over true learning (UNESCO, 2026). Classes are taught in Arabic and French, which is impressive, but also provides insight into just how entrenched the French influences of the past are today. Similarly to the United States, parents with resources often choose private schools instead (Benchouk, 2023). The current focus on exam grades as the primary marker of success is currently failing students in both the USA and Morocco. 

   Fortunately, higher education in Morocco paints a much better picture of the educational system. Tuition is usually free or inexpensive, such as the prices we heard of while visiting ENA Meknes, and ENA as well as other prestigious universities such as Ecole Centrale Casablanca are known to produce competent graduates. The students we met on our tour, as well as graduates Dr. Rashidi and Jalal themselves, serve as excellent examples of this. Furthermore, depending on the economic sector, there are additional affordable opportunities for families; the program serving farmers' sons and a daycare for children provided for free by COPAG were one of my favorite things to learn about regarding education in the region. Overall, I believe students in Morocco also have an innate drive in the pursuit of knowledge and culture, along with the same roadblocks public primary schools in the United States can face. Despite the differences in cost, we are not really so different when it comes to the student role itself. 



Benchouk, Kaoutar. (2023). Comparative insights into Moroccan and American higher education systems: History, legacy, and contemporary realities. International Journal of Higher Education, 12(6). DOI:10.5430/ijhe.v12n6p127

UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report. (2026). Morocco: 2026 GEM report country case study. UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/2026-gem-report-country-case-studies/morocco

UNHCR Morocco. (2026, May 23). Kindergarten, primary, and secondary education. UNHCR Help Morocco. https://help.unhcr.org/morocco/en/services/education/basic-education/



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