Moroccan Families Face Rising Costs as School Year Begins, Survey Shows

According to this new survey conducted by the HCP on the investments made by parents to ensure the schooling of their children in public education, it appears that 61.5% of them spend an average of 4,356 dirhams, or 4.8% of their annual budget. In the private sector, the expenses are dizzying. They amount to 7,726 dirhams for parents who have children enrolled in private education.

According to the findings, the expenditure per person enrolled is 14 times higher for the wealthiest families (7,500 dirhams) than for the most disadvantaged (506 dirhams). Per enrolled child, the annual expenditure was 759 dirhams in rural households compared to 3,217 dirhams in urban households.

Based on the recent figures on household expenses during the previous back-to-school periods, the HCP points out that they vary widely depending on the place of residence, the standard of living and the education sector. "The back-to-school expenditure of households in the top 20% of the population is 5 times that of households in the bottom 20% of the population, i.e. 3,456 dirhams and 721 dirhams respectively. Similarly, the average expenditure of households who have enrolled their children in the private sector (3,639 dirhams) is 4 times higher than that of households who have their children in the public sector (928 dirhams)".