Schooling and cognitive achievements of children in Morocco: can the government improve outcomes?

Morocco is a middle-income country which spends 7.3% of GNP on education. Yet its attainments in education and other social development indicators are similar to those of low income countries. This paper, using data from the Morocco Living Standard Survey explores the relative effectiveness of both supply- and demand-side factors in determining educational outcomes. The school enrollment rate for the upper income group is almost twice that of the low income group. Urban children and rural boys consistently outperform rural children and rural girls in both school attendance and attainment. The school attendance rate is 90% in urban areas as compared to 48% in rural areas and 64% for rural boys compared to 32% for rural girls. Similarly, the completion rate for rural primary school pupils is 60% as compared to 87% for urban pupils and it is 63% for rural boys compared to 56% for rural girls. There are also sharp differences in cognitive achievement between male and female and between rural and urban children in Morocco. Urban children outperform their rural counterparts and boys outperform girls. Poor access to, and low quality of, schools are perhaps the most important sources of rural-urban and gender differences in schooling attainments. The presence of a primary school, or a paved road increases the school enrollment. Investment in electricity, irrigation, and new crops increases the returns to education and hence the demand for education. Public investment in clean water improves the efficiency of time-use, especially of girls, at home and thus reduces the transactions cost of schooling leading to higher school attainment. -from Authors