Education in Morocco: schooling, the Baccalaureat and university access

In short

Morocco runs a national school system managed by the Ministry of National Education. Children start primary school around the age of six, and basic education covers primary school and the first cycle of secondary school. The system ends in a national school-leaving diploma, the Baccalaureat, which opens the way to higher education. Some university faculties admit anyone who holds the diploma, while others choose their students by grades or by a competitive test.

School stages

Many children attend a preschool before primary school, either a traditional Koranic preschool or a modern kindergarten. Primary school lasts six years and finishes with a regional certificate. The next stage is collegial secondary school, a lower secondary cycle of three years that ends with the Brevet, a diploma that is also examined at regional level. After that comes qualifying secondary school, a three-year upper cycle that prepares students for the national Baccalaureat. In the first year students share a common core. From the second year they follow a branch.

The Baccalaureat

The Baccalaureat is the national exam taken at the end of upper secondary school. Students choose a general stream or a technical stream. The general stream offers branches such as mathematical sciences, experimental sciences and letters and humanities, and the technical stream offers applied and industrial sciences. The final result combines the national exam with marks earned during the school years, so steady work through the cycle matters as much as the last weeks of revision. Certificates and results are issued through the education authorities, so always read the rules published by the Ministry for the current year.

Access to higher education

Moroccan higher education has two broad kinds of institution. Faculties of letters, law, economics and sciences are open access: a student with the Baccalaureat can enrol without a selection step. Regulated-access institutions choose their students. These include medicine and pharmacy faculties, dental faculties, the national schools of commerce and management (ENCG), the national schools of applied sciences (ENSA) and the faculties of science and technology. Their selection starts from the Baccalaureat grades, and some add a written test or interview. Another route is the preparatory classes for the engineering and business schools, known as CPGE, which lead to national competitive entrance exams. Places are limited, so applicants are advised to list several options and to follow the calendar published by each institution.

Language of instruction

Arabic is the main language of teaching in the early years, and Tamazight is taught in a growing number of schools. French is taught from early grades and is widely used in higher education for science, medicine and engineering. A framework law adopted in 2019 provides for teaching scientific and technical subjects in foreign languages in secondary school, a choice that sparked public debate, so the exact arrangements in a school can differ. Some private and mission schools follow foreign curricula, and a few offer an international option of the Baccalaureat. Practice questions on this site for the Baccalaureat and the medicine competition are written in French, the language in which the sciences are taught at higher levels, while the international English tests are practised in English.

Studying in Morocco

A student on the Baccalaureat route usually meets two languages inside the same subject. A biology lesson may be explained in Arabic at school and then taught in French at university, so it helps to learn the key terms in both languages from the start. Keep a small notebook with each term in Arabic, in French and in English. Practise reading short scientific texts in French, because medicine, engineering and management programmes lean on it. When a regulated-access school is the goal, treat the grades of the last two years as the main asset and ask the school counsellor how thresholds changed in earlier years. Think also about a plan B, such as an open-access faculty or a technical diploma, so that one competition does not decide the whole path. Students who aim for universities abroad often add an English test and a standardised aptitude test on top of the Baccalaureat, and they should check each university's own admission rules.

Preparing with GetMyMockTest

GetMyMockTest offers free practice for the exams below. Check the official format with each organiser.

• Baccalaureat Marocain: practice questions in French on mathematical sciences and physics-chemistry, with timed tests and flashcards.
• Concours for medicine and pharmacy: practice questions in French on biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, with five timed tests and flashcards.
• Moroccan general knowledge: questions on the history, geography, culture and nature of Morocco.
• IB Diploma: practice for students at schools that offer the International Baccalaureate.
• IELTS: English language test used for study abroad.
• TOEFL: English language test used by many universities abroad.
• SAT: aptitude test used for admission to universities abroad.