Impacts of Social Origin on the Academic Career of University Students. The Case of the Faculty of Sciences of Ben M'Sick

Abstract

Inequality of educational opportunities according to parental background is one of the most studied and debated topics in social sciences. Educational success remains strongly correlated with social background. The principle of equality among students, who are supposed to receive the same education regardless of their individual and family characteristics, is undermined by the exclusion mechanisms at work in Moroccan schools. Loosening the link between the inequalities of students' social origins and their academic and social future was one of the major missions entrusted to the university. In the Moroccan education system, the growth and reproduction of inequalities are one of the factors contributing to the education crisis. In a purely sociological approach, our study analyzes, through a questionnaire survey, the socio-economic and cultural status (financial income and parents' educational levels) of students at the Faculty of Sciences Ben M'Sick (FSBM) in Casablanca, which is geographically located in an environment surrounded by working-class neighborhoods. The results obtained in our study attest that the social and cultural heritage of the parents transmitted to their children (students of the faculty) had effects on social reproduction, as well as the strong implication of the social origin in the learning process.