The growing increase in the number of the students in the Southern provinces that reached ? is considered an indicator testifying to the importance that the State attaches to the educational sector, so much so as the number of students did not exceed a few hundreds back in 1975.

On the other hand, this huge rise in the number of students reflects the effective efforts and plans of the Moroccan government in the educational field in the Southern provinces since they regained independence. Out of concern for sustainable development in education, the Moroccan government has made sure the educational system is in sync with the deeply-ingrained Islamic values and traditions, which represent  a strong bond that ties the different Sahara tribes to the whole Moroccan community  throughout Morocco.

On the grounds of these major objectives, Arabic is used as the teaching vehicle and all curricula and syllabi have been unified. Besides, the Moroccan authorities have insisted since the return of the Southern territories to Morocco on providing a seat to each single pupil aged six. This initiative has required the sustained intervention on the State in view of the increasing number of students at this age group.

The right to education has also been speeded up in good conditions so as to allow the children at schooling age to join schools, and also to allow the youth who have never enrolled or have dropped out to have access to vocational training.

Thanks to this training, the Southern provinces have been able to meet the local needs in terms of qualified staff to implement the plans of sustainable human development. In order to reach the objectives of the educational sector, a lot of efforts have been made to upgrade the infrastructure and put in the huge necessary human and material resources. The broad lines of this operation included the construction of schools, the provision of equipment and the guaranteeing of equal opportunities in education.

The educational sector in Laayoune:

Table showing educational institutions
Public sector:

Cycles	Number of institutions	Number of students	Teaching staff
Fundamental Education	47	27.179	835
Junior secondary school	11	13.313	480
Total	58	40.492	1.315
Qualifying secondary school	07	6.732	324
Overall total	65	47.224	1.639

The private sector:

Type of education	Number
Traditional education	21
Modern education	154
Total	175

 Distribution of students per areas

Areas	Overall number of students	Percentage of girls in the overall number
Urban areas	6931	3224
Rural areas	174	66
Total	7105	3290

Education in Oued-Eddahab- Lagouira Region

1- Primary education in the public and private sectors

The number of pupils enrolled in Oued-Eddahab- Lagouira Region in primary education in both the public and the private sectors for the year 2002-2003 reached 9094, that is an increase of 8%. The following tables present the distribution of students per sex and age as well as the percentage of schooling.

Table presenting numbers of students par age in the region (public and private sectors)

Type of education	Cycle	Number of students	Number of students	Number of students
		Male	Female	Total
	Primary	4569	4284	8853
	Primary	134	107	241
Total		4703	4391	9094

Table presenting students per sex in the rural areas

		2002-2003
Type of education	Cycle	Male	Female	Total
Public	Primary	55	57	112

Table presenting schooling rates

Age group	Percentage
6 years	96
6 - 11 years	97

2- Junior secondary school

3- The number of pupils enrolled in the Junior secondary school in the Oued-Eddahab- Lagouira Region for the year 2003-2004 2164 pupils, that is an increase of 5%. The number of girls reached 955, that is an increase 6%. The rate of schooling of the 12-14 years age group amounted to 59%.

Table showing the trend of the students in the junior secondary level per sex:

Sex	2001-2002	2002-2003
Male	1156	1209
Female	904	955
Total	2060	2164

4- Qualifying secondary education

The general and technical qualifying secondary education is an important part of the educational system because it the transitional period between the junior secondary and the university level. It prepares the students to both better pursue their studies and better integrate the job market.
The number of the students in the qualifying secondary education with all its kinds (general and original) has reached 1306, that is an increase of 14% compared to the figures of the academic year 2001-2002. Depending on the type of education, there are 1256 students in the general education and 50 students in the original one. The number of classes in this cycle amounts to 39.

Table showing the trend of the students in the qualifying secondary level per sex:

Sex	2001-2002	2002-2003
Male	615	710
Female	530	596
Total	1145	1306

On the other hand, the number of candidates for the baccalaureate exam in the second year across the board has reached 423. The rate of success was around 45%, that is 189 students. The following table shows the results as well as the rate of success per major.

Table of the baccalaureate results per major and sex , June 2003

Education in Goulmim-Smara Region:
As development is hard to achieve in an illiterate society, a lot of emphasis has been put mainly on the educational sector. In view of the huge deficiency that could be witnessed in this sector upon the return of these region to mainland, because the whole infrastructure at that point in time in 1975 was no more than two rooms in the deteriorated building with no more than 65 students, while the overall number of students today has reached11,501.
The educational policy of the State has been geared sine 1975 towards providing a seat to each pupil at schooling age; to reach this objective, a lot of human and material resources have raised to lay the foundations of an education that keeps with the aspirations and meets the educational and cultural needs.

 Primary education

	2004/2005	2005/2006	Growth rate %
Number of institutions	774	738	1.14
Number of rooms	811	830	2.29
Number of pupils enrolled	19007	18771	-1.25
Number of rooms	831	830	-0.12
Number of teachers	835	832	-0.36

General primary education

	2004/2005		2005/2006		Growth rate%
	Total	Rural	Total	Rural
institutions	156	85	158	87	1.27
Pupils	71260	24834	69766	24414	-2.14
Rooms	2585	1215	2581	1214	-0.15
Teachers	2807	1269	2965	1268	5.32

	2004/2005		2005/2006		Growth rate%
	Total	Rural	Total	Rural
institutions	6	0	8	0	25
Pupils	1064	0	1297	0	18
Rooms	53	0	59	0	10.16
Teachers	66	0	69	0	4.34

Public Junior secondary education

	2004/2005		2005/2006		Growth rate%
	Total	Rural	Total	Rural
institutions	33	8	36	8	8.33
Pupils	28422	5607	30589	6324	7.08
Rooms	725	158	790	169	8.22
Teachers	1252	269	1225	250	2.20

Private Junior secondary education

	2004/2005		2005/2006		Growth rate%
	Total	Rural	Total	Rural
institutions	1	0	1	0	0
Pupils	60	0	83	0	28.75
Rooms	4	0	5	0	2
Teachers	10	0	12	0	16.66

Public qualifying secondary education

	2004/2005		2005/2006		Growth rate%
	Total	Rural	Total	Rural
institutions	21	4	22	4	4.54
Pupils	14554	1428	15435	1711	5.7
Rooms	376	45	410	51	8.29
Teachers	775	85	673	60	-0.5