A new report by the Moroccan Association for the Improvement of the Quality of Education (AMAQUEN) has found that most students in secondary school across the country “do not deserve” to progress further in the education system.
The report, entitled “The Quality of Education and Training in Morocco Under the 2011 Constitution,” outlines a variety of issues with the Moroccan educational system, including inflated grades and poor human resources.
Abdennasser Naji, the association’s president and the author of the report, argues that exam scores are not an accurate indicator of the students’ academic levels as the scores can be inflated and inconsistent due to the differences between regions and schools.
The report recommends adopting more unified national tests and makes mention of international standards and reports as a first step towards improving this process.
The report also criticized flaws within the human resources system and pipeline in the country. Naji criticized a lack of future planning when training and recruiting future employees.
Priorities within the system are also skewed according to the report, as time is being spent on managing, reassigning, and promoting existing personnel, but not enough of it is directed towards determining the necessary qualifications for the job.
The continuous training that employees within the system receive has also been deemed not enough to bridge the gap between the necessary requirements to improve the system and the reality on the ground.
The report’s mentioning of secondary or middle school students specifically goes back to flaws it detected in the primary schools in the country and their modes of operation.
A lack of administrative staff and insufficient requirements for teachers make most students who pass primary school to higher levels unfit for the increased level, according to the report.
The study also mentions a cyclical nature to these flaws, as the same students who go through the flawed system go on to join the teaching and administrative staff themselves in the future, which can lead to a lack of improvement.
Human resources are the Moroccan education system’s “main point of weakness,” the report established, recommending more investments in the public schooling system to fix these issues.
AMAQUEN also draws attention to rampant corruption in the education system throughout Morocco and makes strong recommendations to fight the phenomenon as a necessary step to improving the quality of education in the country.