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Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Education has announced that eight million students returned to classes from primary to high school institutions across the country on Monday, September 5.
The ministry said that public education institutions welcomed a total of 6.9 million students, noting that around 290,000 teachers have been mobilized at over 11,000 schools to supervise the students in the 2022-2023 school year, including 7,000 in rural areas.
The number of educators includes around 15,000 new teachers, according to Education Minister Chakib Benmoussa, who provided further details about the new academic year while. speaking at a press conference on Tuesday.
Primary education facilities across Morocco are home to about 115,000 teachers, while 68,000 are in charge of secondary schools, the minister said, adding that approximately 70,000 more teachers will be placed in high schools across the country.
Benmoussa also said that Morocco’s education sector is expected to create more employment opportunities to hire around 20,000 additional teachers this October.
The number of students in the first year of primary school in public schools has reached 771,000, the education ministry said in a statement, noting that over 26,000 classes have been set up in the public education sector, including 18,000 in rural areas to make preschool education mandatory to the general public.
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As part of its actions to tackle school the issue of dropouts, the ministry announced new plans for upgrading the quality of canteen services in schools which will be spread out across the region.
Experts have long called for reforms to improve Morocco’s education sector, including measures to adequately deal with the high percentages of school dropouts.
The number of students set to benefit from the upgraded canteen service is estimated at 542,291, representing an increase of 4%, according to the ministry.
This academic year marked the opening of 54 new boarding schools, bringing the number of these institutions to 1,033 boarding schools (+5.5%), said the ministry, indicating that about 234,667 students are occupying the boarding schools, representing an increase of 12%.
In March, the Moroccan Court of Auditors called on the Education Ministry to increase efforts to strengthen support for schooling in rural areas. The court especially urged the government to improve living conditions in boarding schools, as well as expanding the number of school canteens.
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The dropout rate in rural areas remains high compared to that of urban areas. In the 2019-2020 school year, the dropout rate within rural areas was 12.2% compared to 9.3% in urban areas.
The Court of Auditors also called on the government to enlarge the area reached by school transportation as well as upgrading the quality of the transportation itself.
Gaps between private and public institutions is also a cause for concern among parents across Morocco. In November last year, the Moroccan Higher Council of Education released a report that painted a grim picture of the widening quality gap between private and public learning institutions in the country.
Students in public schools are overwhelmingly falling below the “satisfactory” level compared to the learning level achieved in private schools, the report found, lamenting that the difference between elementary school and middle school is even greater.
