Moroccan Youth Issues Noureddine Boutahar

I don’t believe I am the only one to think that the tempest of despair is shaking the ground beneath the Moroccan youth due to the fact that our successive governments’ anemic efforts have failed to properly invest in youth asset . This article seeks to explore the main problems facing the Moroccan youth which have been engendered by defective and deficient policies although a full treatment of the issues is beyond the scope of this post.

Unemployment: The meltdown in economies worldwide has not spared Morocco. Significant layoffs have caused the unemployment rate to remain high, primarily among young people aged 15-24 years. These future parents and breadwinners are unable to find a productive place within the Moroccan society for myriad reasons: inadequate supply of skills by the education system, rapid population growth beyond the economy's capacity to create jobs, automation of many human jobs, and government’s inability to implement job-creating economic development programs and projects, to name a few. As a result, unemployment takes a toll on Moroccan youth whose lives become blighted by social and emotional evils like drug addiction, crimes, dishonesty, immorality, low self-esteem, self-deprecation, and frustration.

Illiteracy: The strategy of near-total elimination of illiteracy in Morocco by 2015 has not been reached despite government efforts, and the scourge still affects 32 percent of the population. Although illiteracy is more common among adults over 50 years old, it is still widespread among the youth, especially in rural areas, with girls carrying the heaviest burden. And if we add the more than 400,000 students who drop out of school every year without obtaining any school certificate, the number of illiterate and semi-illiterate young people swells to huge numbers. Of course, the causes of this curse include mainly poverty, ignorant parents, and depletion of infrastructure. However, its causes are as wide as they are deep and harm and hinder the life of young Moroccans in a number of ways: unemployment and underemployment, low self-worth, transmission of inter-generational illiteracy, and it makes young illiterates fall easy prey to extremist and terrorist groups.

Poverty: The three major complex issues Morocco actually struggles with are illiteracy, unemployment, and poverty. In 2017, 15 people were killed and 40 others injured in a stampede during the distribution of food by a local organization in a village in the province of Essaouira. The disaster highlights the gravity of the problem of poverty in the country where over 9 million people are poor, and where children and youth are the first to bear the brunt. This scourge denies the victims their rights as human beings, deprives them of education, affects their mental and emotional well-being, and leads to poor physical and behavioral health. These poor young people live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, crime, and violence, and leads them to be caught up in cycles of drug abuse, crime, unemployment and underemployment. A combination of factors has contributed to the persistence of poverty in Morocco and they run the continuum from socio-economic disparities to lack of access to quality education to rentier economy; all of which are exacerbated by corruption, unaccountability, impunity, and favoritism –or “Your dad’s my friend” as Moroccans mockingly refer to it. It is worth mentioning, in this regard, that billions of dollars have been spent on programs to alleviate poverty. But who has benefited from these programs?

Lack of Quality Education: Of the 95% of school-aged children in Morocco who enroll in primary school, only 53% make it to high school. School dropout, however, is not the only obstacle faced by Moroccan students as other challenges soon pop up in the way of pupils’ academic achievements. One such hindrance is poor quality education: the World Economic Forum report for 2016/2017 ranked Morocco among the worst countries in terms of students’ achievement (119^th out of 137). Quantitatively speaking, Morocco has made giant steps in the ratio of child enrollment but, qualitatively speaking, our education has been steadily decreasing. This frustrating state is the result of multilayered reasons: top-down approaches in decision making, hasty emergency reforms, lack of qualified teachers, lack of teacher motivation, hunger and poor nutrition which affects the child’s cognitive abilities, near-extinction of school libraries, multilingual environment at school which contributes to the low literacy rates, and poor adjustment to advanced technology. Inevitably, poor education has devastating effects on the Moroccan economy as it begets ignorance, unemployment, poverty, violence, and so on. In Nita Ambari’s words, “Education empowers and emboldens the youth to chase their dreams.” I am sure she means quality education, and it is this quality education which creates a domino effect on other pathway opportunities. Without it, there would be no development breakthrough in this country and no poor would be lifted to prosperity.

Substance Abuse: Over 800,000 Moroccans are addicted to drugs. These include cannabis 4%, cocaine 2%,  psychotropic drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, and glue-sniffing, mostly by homeless kids. Worse still is that 1.2% of boy students and 0.4% of girl students use drugs, which does not augur well for the future of youth and the country as a whole. Young Moroccans, like young people worldwide, do not take drugs to feel worse, but because they are unhappy with the quality of their lives. The reasons certainly vary from young person to young person. It can be because of failures at school, boredom, rebellion, peer pressure and the desire to fit within a group. For other people, drugs can be a means to reduce or avoid psychological pain of poverty and misery. The effects of substance abuse are many and varied and run the gamut from health and mental issues to financial issues to relationships to legal issues.

In Nelson Mandela’s words, “Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation.” However, youth will not be able to play any important role in the development of our society unless the government invests in their health, education and safety.