Education in Morocco
انظروا هنا للنسخة العربية
Guest Post by Meriem Sahli | In the following post, guest writer Meriem Sahli outlines important developments in education in Morocco and identifies remaining areas for improvement.
INTRODUCTION
The Kingdom of Morocco is situated in the North-Western part of Africa. Its geographic location makes it both an African and an Arab-Muslim country; it is a member of the African Union and the Arab League. Arabic is the official language, together with Tamazight; the latter gained this status in 2015. Being a French Protectorate from 1912 to 1955, the second language in Morocco is French. This multilingual background has shaped the Moroccan educational system.
This post outlines the organization of the Moroccan educational system and the different phases it has gone through to enhance the quality of education. There have been educational reforms at the level of the curriculum, the teaching methods, assessment, and teacher training. However, despite these reforms, the educational system in Morocco is still facing a number of challenges.
The history of the educational system in Morocco
In the year 859 A.D., a woman named Fatima Al Fihriyya, who emigrated with her family from Tunisia to Fes, founded Al-Qarawiyyin, the first institution of higher education in Morocco and the Arab world. To this day, graduates of this institution study mainly Islamic jurisprudence and the Maliki legal system, as well as classical Arabic and modern languages such as French and English. Already before colonial influence, the educational system was elitist, serving the rich minority. In the msid (elementary school) and the madrasa (secondary school), pupils learned how to read and write Arabic and memorized the Quran.
When the French arrived in Morocco in 1912, the educational system was traditional and religious. Under General Lyautey, the French resident general, the newly established educational system had one objective: not to modernize the country or to democratize education, but to develop a Moroccan educated elite to serve the purposes of the colonizer. The French opted for a segregationist policy. In 1930, they issued a law called the Berber Dahir in order to educate the Amazigh people in French only. The objective of this segregation was to alienate the Amazigh from their Arab compatriots and to inculcate in the minds of the younger generations that their history and aspirations are different from those of the Arabs. This policy provoked a strong reaction from the Moroccan nationalist movement, forcing the French to abandon it. Apart from renewing the buildings, setting examinations, and increasing the salary of the professors, the administration of Al-Qarawiyyin University was left to Moroccans because it was a religious institution. To debunk the French educational system in Morocco, the Moroccan nationalists created what was called ‘Free Schools’; though these schools followed the French schooling model, they emphasized the study of Arabic in elementary and secondary schools. The Moroccan Jewish community was also segregated from the Moroccan Muslim community in schooling. The ‘Alliance Israelite,’ a French-based international organization, whose objective was to promote Jewishness through education and professional training, was responsible for the education of the Moroccan Jews during the colonial period. When the French left in 1956, very few Moroccans were educated, compared to other post-colonial countries, such as Algeria and Tunisia.
At the dawn of independence, the majority of the teaching personnel were French, since the few Moroccans who finished their higher education occupied low-income jobs in the French administration. Therefore, the Moroccan Ministry of National Education issued two important policies: Moroccanization and Arabization. The objective of the first policy was to substitute all French teachers with Moroccan ones, which was fully achieved in the 1990s. As for Arabization, Morocco intended to teach all subjects in Arabic. However, this policy has never been successful. All subjects are taught in Arabic in grades one and two. Starting in grade three, education becomes bilingual. Subjects such as history, geography, and Islamic education are taught in Arabic. Science subjects were initially taught in French, switching to Arabic in 1983 under the Arabization process, and then back to French in 2019.
Challenges and Solutions
The expansion of mass education has been a success story, as over 95% of school-aged children have access to primary education (USAID, 2019). However, the Moroccan educational system is still facing major challenges, such as: increased drop-out rates, high levels of students’ absenteeism, large class size, lack of quality in-service training, debilitating infrastructure, fewer employment opportunities for those who do not have a high school education diploma, and a highly politicized language policy and language planning.
To raise the standards of education in Morocco, the Moroccan government needs to offer preschool education to children from the age of 4 to 6 years, as well as addressing the challenges that are impeding primary, middle, and high-school education, from the age of 6 to 15 years. Such improvements include: increasing teachers’ capacity, raising pupils’ daily attendance, improving early-grade reading literacy, creating access to learning and teaching materials in rural areas and remote villages, and distributing educational materials to poor students.
In its quest for sustainable human development, Morocco advocates a development strategy in the educational sector that is based on the equity of access and the quality of outcomes. However, reforms are still needed to invest in human capital (i.e. children, teachers, educationalists, school administrators, and officials) and to develop quality compulsory education and a sustainably-financed educational policy, especially considering that the quality of a country’s educational system has a direct impact on the economic growth and the development of the country.
Dr. Meriem Sahli is an Assistant Professor of Arabic language and literature in the school of Humanities and Social Sciences at Al Akhawayn University. She obtained her PhD in applied linguistics. She has extensive teaching experience in Europe, the USA, and Morocco. She has participated in national and international conferences. Her main research interests include education, reading literacy, learning Arabic, curriculum design and development, use of technology, and language program evaluation.
الدكتورة مريم الساهلي، أستاذة الأدب واللغة العربية بكلية الإنسانيات والعلوم الاجتماعية بجامعة الأخوين، حاصلة على شهادة الدكتوراه في اللسانيات التطبيقية. د ّرست في أوروبا وأمريكا والمغرب. شاركت في مؤتمرات علمية دولية ووطنية. تر ّكز في أبحاثها الأكاديمية على المجالات الآتية: تعليمية اللغة العربية للناطقين بها وبغيرها، تطوير المناهج، إدماج التكنولوجيا في التعليم، تقييم البرامج اللغوية. – النسخة العربية موجودة فوق المقالة للتنزيل
