Here is an article from Reuters on the controversial decision to teach subjects in French in public primary and high schools. Somehow other countries can teach and learn in Arabic, or atleast produce truly bilingual people, but this seems challenging in Morocco. The article leaves out the simulateous efforts to introduce Arabic dialect (as opposed to standard Fusha) into children's text books.
Perhaps there are political and not just economic reasons to want to distance youth from
Arabic?
____________________
Morocco looks to French as language of economic success
With so many students dropping out of university because they don’t speak French, the government has proposed reintroducing it as the language for teaching science, maths and technical subjects such as computer science in high schools.
It also wants children to start learning French when they start school.
The country’s official languages are Arabic and Amazigh, or Berber. Most people speak Moroccan Arabic – a mixture of Arabic and Amazigh infused with French and Spanish influences.
In school, children are taught through Arabic although they don’t use it outside the classroom. When they get to university, lessons switch to French, the language of the urban elite and the country’s former colonial masters. Confused? Many are.
Two out of three people fail to complete their studies at public universities in Morocco, mainly because they don’t speak French.
Perhaps there are political and not just economic reasons to want to distance youth from
Arabic?
____________________
 |
| Image by Gareth Smail, .https://pulitzercenter.org/ |
Morocco looks to French as language of economic success
Ahmed Eljechtimi
With so many students dropping out of university because they don’t speak French, the government has proposed reintroducing it as the language for teaching science, maths and technical subjects such as computer science in high schools.
It also wants children to start learning French when they start school.
The country’s official languages are Arabic and Amazigh, or Berber. Most people speak Moroccan Arabic – a mixture of Arabic and Amazigh infused with French and Spanish influences.
In school, children are taught through Arabic although they don’t use it outside the classroom. When they get to university, lessons switch to French, the language of the urban elite and the country’s former colonial masters. Confused? Many are.
Two out of three people fail to complete their studies at public universities in Morocco, mainly because they don’t speak French.
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