Voices News /
Hicham Ait Mansour, Director of the National Evaluation Authority at the Supreme Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research, confirmed on Thursday, December 25, 2025 in Rabat, that access rates to early childhood education in Morocco between 2015 and 2025 witnessed a remarkable improvement, as the enrollment rate of children aged between 4 and 5 years increased from 50.2 percent to 70.4 percent.
Ait Mansour explained, in a statement to the press following the presentation of the report on the evaluation of early childhood education in Morocco for the 2024-2025 academic year, that since the launch of the 2018-2028 program for the development and generalization of early childhood education, tangible progress has been recorded, particularly in rural areas, where the rate has increased from 36.3 percent to 75.6 percent, thus exceeding the rate recorded in urban areas.
He added that the number of public preschool units increased from 6,185 to 23,182 units between 2018-2019 and 2024-2025, while the unstructured units witnessed a “sharp decline,” as they decreased from 18,882 to 4,946 units, noting that the general budget allocated to preschool education doubled, as it moved from 1.13 billion dirhams to about 3 billion dirhams between 2019 and 2025, with a gradual shift of the weight of spending from investment to management.
This assessment, launched by the National Assessment Authority of the Supreme Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research in partnership with UNICEF, aims to analyze the state of early childhood education in Morocco for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The assessment analyzes the state of early childhood education in Morocco in the context of structural transformations, by examining the quality of learning environments, reception conditions, educational practices, and the developmental and learning achievements of children at the end of the early childhood education stage.
The study also highlights important challenges that must be addressed, namely the continued spatial and social disparities in access to and quality of education, the need to improve infrastructure and health facilities, strengthen governance and financing of the sector, and unify and apply quality standards, particularly those related to the training and qualification of educators and improving their social and economic conditions.
Furthermore, the report pointed to the limited interactive educational practices within departments, the fragile integration of children with disabilities, and the different working conditions and professional framework for educators, especially in public and non-structured education, which affects professional stability and the quality of pedagogical practices.
In this context, the assessment included prospects that the Supreme Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research considers essential for improving early childhood education in Morocco, particularly consolidating the logic of quality, governance and institutional leadership, supporting the role of territorial communities within the framework of advanced regionalization, and strengthening the professionalism of educators by improving working conditions, professional stability and basic and continuing training.
This study included 180 early childhood education units (public, private, partnership, and unstructured), and targeted a sample of 871 children, 180 educators, 180 institution officials, and 624 parents, in addition to 180 classroom observation sessions.