This article examines the relationship between cheating and the transformation of the meaning of merit within the Moroccan school, based on the assumption that cheating is no longer merely an individual deviant behaviour but has become an indicator of structural dysfunctions affecting the role of schooling and the meaning of academic credentials within the educational system. The article adopts a qualitative–interpretive sociological approach grounded in the analysis of official educational reform documents, reports of the Higher Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research, and selected international reports on learning indicators and educational quality in Morocco, and an analysis of several discourses on school cheating and its representations. The findings show that governing the education system through quantitative performance indicators and massification policies has contributed to the emergence of what may be termed “institutionalized cheating,” as well as to the consolidation of forms of social justification for cheating, leading to the rise of a pattern of “disguised illiteracy”.