The Moroccan Educational System and the Middle Classes
The Amadeus Institute is focused on education and the vocational training of the Moroccan population, as well as social mobility. Although imprecise, the relationship between a country’s development and the education of its populace is well established. Improving and democratizing the Moroccan educational system is thus in the national interest.
The Moroccan education and vocational training systems have been at the center of ambitious and necessary reforms for the past ten years. This is evident most notably in the publication of a National Charter of Education and Training (1999) and the initiation of an “Emergency Plan” (known as Plan Najah) which includes a new version, adopted in 2008, covering the period 2009-12. These reforms are needed in order to address the extreme weaknesses of the Moroccan educational system, a system that is weaker than those of neighboring countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
The stakes are high, including the reduction of persistent illiteracy (around 40% of the population), the training of youth for the demands of employability and the modernization and globalization of Morocco. Achieving these goals would promote the creation and consolidation of a flourishing middle class in Morocco, which would in turn be synonymous with economical and social development.
It is necessary to begin thinking in-depth about accessibility to education, the content of vocational training, pedagogical methods, and the architecture of the educational system as a whole. These are the key recommendations of the current white paper, which seeks to offer an analysis of the state of the Moroccan educational system in terms of its relation to the middle class(es).
