Morocco expands Tamazight teaching

The Moroccan government promises to make Tamazight classes more accessible to pupils.

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat

[AFP/Abdelhak Senna] More than a million pupils will benefit from Tamazight courses this school year, the Moroccan education minister says.

While Morocco’s revised constitution granted an official status to the Tamazight language alongside Arabic, its teaching has yet to meet public expectations.

Efforts will be made to redouble the number of pupils receiving language lessons, National Education Minister Mohammed El Ouafa promised. This year, only 15% of pupils (545,000) in state schools had Tamazight courses. In this new school year, 1.2 million will benefit from the classes, El Ouafa said.

He noted efforts had been made to train teachers, who will have thirty hours a week this year to spend across a number of schools to help bring the plans to fruition. The minister admitted that work needs to be done to train teachers to make up for the shortfall and roll out Tamazight teaching across the board.

Morocco has been struggling in that regard.

A pilot scheme started nine years ago, with plans for a full roll-out in 2008. Every year, 20% of schools were supposed to start offering lessons in the language. Ahmed Boukous, the Rector of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, has blamed the delay on a number of reasons, particularly the lack of strategic planning and a shortage of teachers. It is crucial to train staff in order to meet the targets which have been set, Boukous argued.

Many people are calling for officials to lay out a clear strategy to deal with both teaching and the use of Tamazight by public institutions.

MP Mohamed Boudra said that political parties had made promises to the Amazigh population during their election campaigns. He expressed hope that at the start of the new parliamentary year, the legislative body would be given the resources it needs to use the Tamazight language.

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During the spring parliamentary session, Amazigh MP and singer Fatima Tabaamrant sparked a fierce debate by asking a question out loud in Tamazight. However, given the lack of instant translation tools, it is difficult for institutions and administrations to use the language.

“Tamazight was raised to official language status more than a year ago, and the legal and educational resources need to be put in place to turn that commitment into action. The situation is a complicated one at the moment, but with teaching, things should become easier in a few years’ time,” Ahmed Chentoufi told Magharebia.

While some Moroccans want their children to acquire Tamazight, others feel that pupils should focus more on international languages. Bank Clerk Mehdi Charifi argued it is better to concentrate on French and English.

“Pupils should be given a choice on whether they learn Tamazight,” he suggested.

This content was commissioned for Magharebia.com.
Morocco Education

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