Most educational systems in the Third World have been heavily influenced by centuries of colonial rule, and Morocco is no exception. Though the Spanish influence in northern Morocco has diminished substantially since independence, the French educational system has provided the base on which much of Moroccan public education has been built.

And yet, the present educational system was preceded also by almost a thousand years of

Islamic education that provided a network of educational institutions that in some ways still exceeds the reach of modern public schooling. Both the modern and traditional systems of schooling have evolved over decades of contact between teachers, students, and pedagogies within Moroccan society. Competition and even rivalry are still apparent in the kinds of remarks made about these institutions, and no comprehensive picture of education or literacy in Morocco can be drawn without some understanding of each of them.