Morocco’s preschool education has experienced notable access improvements between 2015 and 2025, with enrollment rates for children aged four to five years rising from 50.2% to 70.4%, according to National Evaluation Authority Director Hicham Ait Mansour.
Since launching the 2018-2028 preschool development and generalization program, significant advances have occurred particularly in rural areas, where rates jumped from 36.3% to 75.6%, surpassing urban levels, Ait Mansour told journalists Thursday in Rabat following presentation of the 2024-2025 school year preschool evaluation report.
Public preschool units increased from 6,185 to 23,182 between 2018-2019 and 2024-2025, while unstructured units declined significantly from 18,882 to 4,946 units. Public preschool education budget more than doubled from 1.13 billion dirhams to approximately 3 billion between 2019 and 2025, with progressive shift from investment expenditures toward operational costs.
The National Evaluation Authority evaluation, conducted in partnership with UNICEF, examines preschool conditions for the 2024-2025 academic year amid structural transformations. The assessment analyzes preschool education within Morocco’s changing context, examining learning environment quality, reception conditions, pedagogical practices, and socio-emotional and cognitive competencies children develop by preschool completion.
The study highlights significant challenges requiring attention, including rural-urban disparities in learning quality, infrastructure and sanitation facility improvement needs, sector governance and financing strengthening, quality standards unification and application particularly regarding educator training and qualification, and improved social and economic conditions for teaching staff.
The report documents persistent territorial and social access disparities, limited interactive pedagogical classroom practices, fragile inclusion of children with disabilities, and heterogeneous working conditions and professional supervision of educators, particularly in public and unstructured education, affecting professional stability and pedagogical practice quality. The evaluation covered 180 preschool units across public, private, partnership, and unstructured categories, involving 871 children, 180 educators, 180 establishment managers, 624 parents, and 180 classroom observation sessions.
