Rabat – A staggering 59% of Moroccan students fall below the minimum level of reading proficiency, according to data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2021).
Conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the study assessed the reading skills of schoolchildren aged 9 and 10, across 57 participating countries.
In the study, Morocco ranked near-bottom in the 56th place on a list of 57 countries. The average score for Moroccan students was 372 points, way below the international average set at 500 points, representing a 128-point gap.
The data from PIRLS 2021 echoes reports from the World Bank that sound the alarm on the sub-optimal state of Morocco’s primary and pre-schooling.
In July 2022, a World Bank report indicated that an average of 64.9% of Moroccan children under the age of 10 are unable to read a simple text.
The Moroccan government only recently turned its attention to pre-schooling despite its importance. Experts unanimously agree that pre-schooling is vital to developing cognitive and socioemotional skills for children that would help them succeed later on in life.
Another study from the World Bank released in July 2022, shows that Morocco lacks a “clear policy” on managing pre-schooling institutions, and suffers from an overall lack of trained professionals.
The country does not have a state-backed framework to hire leadership of preschool institutions, with the task being instead carried out on an “informal” basis.
Preschool principals in the country are hired based on their skills pertaining to managing primary schools, for lack of proper regulatory framework governing preschool education.
Read Also: Report: 64.9% of Morocco’s Children Aged 10 Cannot Read A Simple Text
