Lilia Bellahcen, Grade 12
UWC Costa Rica
On August 9, 2019, Law 51-17 reverted to 30 years of Arabization. Why such a law? What consequences for the current education system? What political, economic and social issues?
In the aftermath of independence, some nationalists considered that the first reforms to generalize the modern school and Arabize the teaching of the humanities were insufficient to break with the domination inherited from the protectorate. The educational executives who succeeded the French aid workers needed emancipation and autonomy from a system that still held them hostage. In 1985, the Arabization policy was launched to gradually replace French by Arabic in scientific subjects. At the time, the prevailing doctrine wanted Arabization to be the only way to safeguard national identity and stem acculturation. The first Arabizing baccalaureate graduates to face their fate in scientific courses taught in French at the university were those of 1990.
I wonder if changing the language of the education system was the best way to make education more effective? Should we detach ourselves from the French language even in scientific fields? What economic and social consequences did these reforms produce in the long term?
Arabization required a great deal of preparation, gradual change, appropriate educational resources, and teachers trained accordingly. The government of the day presented it as an achievement that was painful at the time for a few generations but "supposed" to be saving in the medium and long term. This is the time to train the number and quality of teachers for future generations. Unfortunately, Morocco then experienced a shortage of teachers fluent in the Arabic language and others, from Arab countries, were invited to respond to this lack.
Despite these belated attempts to plug the defects of such a system and the consequences it would produce, the quality of education is impoverished, thus producing generations of "language handicaps", precisely the one used in scientific studies. Education in French having been maintained, the transition to university studies became difficult. In Morocco, the majority of households use the local dialect to communicate, which does not allow children to master the languages of instruction, and more particularly the French language, since it is less used during their schooling. The figures show that 30% of students in science fields prefer to enroll in other fields in Arabic since they are not sufficiently well equipped linguistically to pursue complex studies in French. In fact, only 12% of students ended up in science courses.
In addition, companies, public and private, have kept French within their organizations, which worsened the scarcity of skills required by the labor market. This mismatch between the skills demanded and those produced by our education system has contributed to the slowdown in economic growth. This growth required a more sustained increase in the quality and quantity of skills present in the country. A challenge that today has important consequences for our social development. The risk of dropping out of school and increasing delinquency worsened because beyond the Baccalaureate the horizon darkened. It has also contributed strongly to a high unemployment rate and a lack of inclusion of young people in the economy. The framework law (51-17) provides for a series of measures including the teaching of scientific and technical subjects in high school in French. What are the consequences?
Like the damage that hasty Arabization has done, we risk seeing that of hasty francization give us comparable results. At first glance, this initiative is a fine attempt to reestablish continuity between high school and university. But the lack of real preparation risks jeopardizing the education of several generations, just like those that preceded them. When in doubt, I asked the question to the "Communicate in French" Facebook groups that I hosted during the first months of lockdown. To my surprise, students and job seekers were unanimous on its future benefits. For them, this new teaching method would allow beneficiaries to better master the French language, facilitate their access to scientific studies and give them more opportunities on the job market.
As far as I am concerned, I think that the opening of Morocco to the international market to attract Foreign Direct Investments or to encourage large local companies to invest in Africa is in the direction of a call for multilingual skills in all areas. Future government policies can only go in this direction by providing the next generations with the tools necessary for greater integration into this globalizing movement. This first step towards continuity and consistency in the training course is very appreciable but requires an acceleration of the upgrading to ensure success and avoid the mistakes of the past.
Citation
https://www.etudiant.ma/articles/l-unesco-fait-son-bilan-sur-l-ecole-marocaine
In the aftermath of independence, some nationalists considered that the first reforms to generalize the modern school and Arabize the teaching of the humanities were insufficient to break with the domination inherited from the protectorate. The educational executives who succeeded the French aid workers needed emancipation and autonomy from a system that still held them hostage. In 1985, the Arabization policy was launched to gradually replace French by Arabic in scientific subjects. At the time, the prevailing doctrine wanted Arabization to be the only way to safeguard national identity and stem acculturation. The first Arabizing baccalaureate graduates to face their fate in scientific courses taught in French at the university were those of 1990.
I wonder if changing the language of the education system was the best way to make education more effective? Should we detach ourselves from the French language even in scientific fields? What economic and social consequences did these reforms produce in the long term?
Arabization required a great deal of preparation, gradual change, appropriate educational resources, and teachers trained accordingly. The government of the day presented it as an achievement that was painful at the time for a few generations but "supposed" to be saving in the medium and long term. This is the time to train the number and quality of teachers for future generations. Unfortunately, Morocco then experienced a shortage of teachers fluent in the Arabic language and others, from Arab countries, were invited to respond to this lack.
Despite these belated attempts to plug the defects of such a system and the consequences it would produce, the quality of education is impoverished, thus producing generations of "language handicaps", precisely the one used in scientific studies. Education in French having been maintained, the transition to university studies became difficult. In Morocco, the majority of households use the local dialect to communicate, which does not allow children to master the languages of instruction, and more particularly the French language, since it is less used during their schooling. The figures show that 30% of students in science fields prefer to enroll in other fields in Arabic since they are not sufficiently well equipped linguistically to pursue complex studies in French. In fact, only 12% of students ended up in science courses.
In addition, companies, public and private, have kept French within their organizations, which worsened the scarcity of skills required by the labor market. This mismatch between the skills demanded and those produced by our education system has contributed to the slowdown in economic growth. This growth required a more sustained increase in the quality and quantity of skills present in the country. A challenge that today has important consequences for our social development. The risk of dropping out of school and increasing delinquency worsened because beyond the Baccalaureate the horizon darkened. It has also contributed strongly to a high unemployment rate and a lack of inclusion of young people in the economy. The framework law (51-17) provides for a series of measures including the teaching of scientific and technical subjects in high school in French. What are the consequences?
Like the damage that hasty Arabization has done, we risk seeing that of hasty francization give us comparable results. At first glance, this initiative is a fine attempt to reestablish continuity between high school and university. But the lack of real preparation risks jeopardizing the education of several generations, just like those that preceded them. When in doubt, I asked the question to the "Communicate in French" Facebook groups that I hosted during the first months of lockdown. To my surprise, students and job seekers were unanimous on its future benefits. For them, this new teaching method would allow beneficiaries to better master the French language, facilitate their access to scientific studies and give them more opportunities on the job market.
As far as I am concerned, I think that the opening of Morocco to the international market to attract Foreign Direct Investments or to encourage large local companies to invest in Africa is in the direction of a call for multilingual skills in all areas. Future government policies can only go in this direction by providing the next generations with the tools necessary for greater integration into this globalizing movement. This first step towards continuity and consistency in the training course is very appreciable but requires an acceleration of the upgrading to ensure success and avoid the mistakes of the past.
Citation
https://www.etudiant.ma/articles/l-unesco-fait-son-bilan-sur-l-ecole-marocaine
www.unitedworldwide.co