World Journal of Education
Aomar Ibourk & Jabrane Amaghrouss – (…) As can be deduced from the table, Morocco is the country where the inequalities in education are most pronounced compared with the sample of this study. This outcome is easily understood when we take into consideration the fact that in Morocco we can find the highest illiteracy rates and the lowest average number of schooling years of the sample (…) We have calculated, at the same time, the Gini coefficients of education based on gender. By doing this, it proves that the inequalities in education were generally reduced for both sexes and over all the countries between 1970 and 2010. Despite this general tendency, the level of inequality in education among women was still obviously higher in 2010 for some middle-income MENA countries (Morocco (0.64) and Iraq (0.56)).
This reflects the discrimination affecting women in the schooling process (…) By analyzing the difference of the Gini index between men and women, it has been shown that Morocco was the only country where the gap continued to increase. It doubled between 1970 and 2005 from 0.08 to 0.17respectively before declining by one degree but eventually stabilizing at 0.16. This gap continued to narrow in some countries like Jordan, Libya, Syria and Turkey in the period between 1970 and 2010. However, for other countries the gap between the two indices continued to rise until the period 1985-1990. After that, it started to fall between the years 1990 and 1995 (…) In 1970, Morocco belonged to the group where inequalities deeply affected both men and women (the average of the Gini index in this group is 0.9 for women and 0.78 for men). Libya alone was positioned in an intermediate situation. The most efficient group for both sexes is group 2; it consists basically of higher-income countries plus Syria, Turkey and Jordan. In 2010, Morocco and Iraq constituted the least efficient group (the most unequal countries) for both men and women (the average Gini index in this group is respectively 0.45 and 0.6). Bahrain, on the other hand, stood out from other countries by reducing the inequalities (0.18 for men and 0.22 for women). The other countries are a group whose achievements were in an intermediate situation (0.32 for men and 0.39 for women) (…) In 2010, a highly increased Gini index for the 15-19 age group was noticed in Morocco (0.38) and a very low value in Qatar and Saudi Arabia (0.12) followed by Jordan (0.13). The most unequal age group was the 75 years and over group. This simply concerns old people who could not benefit from schooling in the sense that when they were young the majority of the MENA regions were European colonies (…) In 1970, Morocco was a member of group 1. Group 3 was the most efficient (less inequality) and it contained just Saudi Arabia (0.69 for 15-19-year-olds; 0.69 for 40-44-year-olds and 0.72 for the 75 years and over group). As far as the F-test is concerned, the difference between the groups is significant at 1%. For 2010, the results show certain dynamicity in the evolution of the Gini index as they decline in the three age groups (0.37 for 15-19-year-olds; 0.51 for 40-44-year-olds, and 0.94 for the 75 years and over group). If the Iraqi situation may be explained by the war that took place in that country for quite some time, the Moroccan case raises many unanswered questions. In fact, the schooling process did not meet the increasing demand for education, and the literacy programs have not yet absorb the delay observed in the elderly. The very unequal countries in 1970 (Algeria, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Tunisia) had leapt to an intermediate position by the year 2010 (…) The differences noticed between the countries lead us to assume the existence of other differences even within the same country. For instance, Amaghouss and Ibourk (2011) have calculated the education Gini index and the average years of schooling of Moroccan provinces in 2004. From these calculations, it is revealed that both Fes and Moulay Yacoub provinces (located in the Fes-Boulemane region) recorded contradictory achievements in terms of reducing inequality. As a matter of fact, the province of Fes is classified among the ten least unequal provinces, compared to Moulay Yacoub which is classified amongst the ten most unequal provinces. Therefore, this is a current controversial issue to be considered in the future works.
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