Abstract:

Currently, the generalization of preschool education represents a key challenge in Morocco. Since the country's commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, national policies have tried to strengthen mechanisms to combat socio-spatial exclusion from schooling, particularly the provision of early childhood education.

However, the offer remains the prerogative of the urban area. Indeed, it is very little available and sometimes non-existent in rural areas. The preschool system is mainly based on the private sector, which accounts for more than 81% of preschool enrolment and 80.8% of educational establishments. The rest of the provision is provided by community schools. Public institutions are almost non-existent (Minister of National Education, 2018). Indeed, unequal access to preschool education translates into unequal opportunities for success and retention. The lack of access to preschool education contributes to increasing the probability of dropping out of school. In this regard, the transition from preschool to primary education is a necessary step in the child's school career (Ahtola, Silinskas, Poikonen, Kontoniemi, Niemi, and Nurmi, 2011; Pianta, Cox, Taylor and Early, 1999).

Studies that have elaborated on the relationship between preschool and academic performance affirm the positive impact on students' academic achievement by saying that when the student attends preschool, his or her performance improves (Saïd Hanchane, Nisrine Idir, and Tarek Mostafa (2013). Abdoulaye Diagne (2010), suggests that early childhood education attendance significantly reduces the probability of dropping out of school. According to him, preschool attendance constitutes a phase of intellectual awakening for children who, from an early age, learn to control the basic concepts that are indispensable for later school success.

Following a spatial logic, the objective of this study is to analyze the impact of preschool education provision on the school dropout rate in Morocco. It is based on the hypothesis that the weakness of preschool education provision and the overcoming of the preschool education transition, negatively influences the school career of pupils and may even lead to a decision to leave the school system early.

From a methodological point of view, this paper mobilizes the individual database of the 2014 general population and housing census. The endogenous variable is represented by the dropout rate of children in a dropout situation. Hence, the age group is children aged 10 to 14. We aggregated these data for the 75 provinces of Morocco to test the spatial effect of the provision of preschool education on the probability of children staying in or dropping out of school in Morocco. The quantitative characterization of school exclusion about school success makes it possible to assess the extent of the phenomenon compared to the schooling provision in place. Its breakdown by region and by gender also makes it possible to describe the impact of policies to generalize preschool enrolment while at the same time assessing the characteristics of children who drop out of school.

Keywords:

Childhood, Drop out of school, early childhood, Preschool, Morocco.