THE SCHOOL SEEMS TO PLAY THE ROLE OF A SOCIAL LIFT LIFTER THAN IN THE PAST
Despite budgetary expenditure dedicated to education, which places Morocco among the countries which devote a large share of GDP to the education of their young people (i.e. 6.5%), all the efforts made by the respective governments in terms of education have not translated into the performance of the education system. As a result, they have not only not accelerated the dynamics of productivity nor ensured sufficient and sustained growth of the economy, but the overall failure of the education system and the inequalities that accompany it are more than ever weighing down the chances of achieving harmonious social progress.
Thus, the lack of a better investment in education and the low quality of this, induce shortcomings in terms of student achievements -both at primary and secondary school level and in comprehension or mathematics skills-. These shortcomings lead to poor integration into the labor market, which in turn discredits the education system in the eyes of society, since it gives individuals the impression that investing in education is pointless as long as it is not does not translate into tangible effects and as long as it ensures less and less the chances of social mobility.
Gone are the days when the diploma might allow a more promising integration into the job market. Moreover, both women and rural dwellers are less likely than men or urban dwellers to experience upward academic and social mobility. The reason would come, in the case of women, from the sharing of tasks within households, which confines girls more to domestic work or even to the early marriage of girls. On the other hand, in the case of rural people, this would be due to the insufficiency of infrastructures in rural areas, compared to those prevailing in towns.
In addition, several studies have shown that the richest households have more means and can therefore better bear the costs of schooling their children. Alongside this economic capital comes what researchers call ‘cultural heritage’. Indeed, according to these studies, there is a relationship between the cultural capital that can be transmitted from one generation to another and academic success, first, then the rise in the social ladder, then. Also, children from wealthy families acquire from their parents cultural capital and a set of habits and behaviors that promote their success in school and in life, particularly compared to children from the middle and poor classes.
Following these conclusions, certain university researchers have recommended, in particular, that in order to increase the chances of the poorest of achieving successful school mobility, it is important to remedy the shortcomings inherent in the failure of their cultural heritage, by organizing, for example, educational support mechanisms for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.