This study examines the determinants of academic achievement among 15-year-old students in Morocco using PISA 2018 data. Adopting a multilevel modelling approach, the analysis captures student-, family-, and school-level influences on performance in mathematics, reading, and science. The findings reveal that socioeconomic status remains a significant predictor, particularly in mathematics. Gender and the urban-rural divide emerge as powerful structural determinants, alongside non-cognitive factors such as sense of belonging, parental support, life satisfaction, and future aspirations. School-level characteristics show weaker and less consistent associations. These results suggest that educational inequalities in Morocco are primarily driven by social and territorial disparities that the education system reinforces rather than mitigates.
Bijou et al. (Mon,) studied this question.