At What Costs the New Language Policy Will Be Delivered in Morocco?

Rabat – Rumors had it that French would be reintegrated in primary education as well as a language of instruction both for the hard sciences and the humanities.

Rumors had it also that the place of English was to be scaled up and promoted to a language of instruction. In the press conference, Rachid Belmokhtar, the Minister of National Education held on Tuesday, he dissipated doubts and confirmed the decision to rehabilitate the status of French and to upgrade that of English. The introduction of the latter in the lower classes, he announced, will be gradual depending on the availability of teachers until it covers all grades starting the fourth and it becomes a language of instruction. For many, this was also the confirmation of the downward indicators of the status of Arabic in Moroccan education, the argument being that the language had its shot, a precious one, and managed to miss it lamentably driving the whole system into a wall. A challenge for the minister will certainly be how to still tongues and tame ideologies that have for over half a century been mesmerizing the population with discourse hoisting the Arabic language on top of all pedestals and making of it the only possible way out of a fatal course education had been taking ever since independence.

In his presentation of the strategy, it was, in fact, clear that the concern of His Excellency, was, on the one hand, how to maintain a balance between the two major competing foreign languages both of which one could tell must have been applying a lot of heat on him and, on the other hand, how to convince of the compromise that can but result in affecting the current dominating status of the Arabic language and jeopardize the place which the Amazigh language has been aspiring to since the constitution has granted it official status.

The plight of the man and of his team must not have been pleasant. Whatever the case, with the political decision now made and announced, the load is off the Minister’s back and he must be feeling relieved and safe on the other side of the tight rope. Discussing the relevance of the decision would serve much less purpose for the time being than discussing how it will be implemented. We will leave that exercise to the Head of the Government who a few weeks ago made a scene in the parliament because the Minister of Education had announced very timidly that that the French language could be used in the future to reach some scientific subjects in dine technical schools. The Head of the Government had disowned his Minister in public and in a manner many had judged as humiliating. The Minister of education had remained placid and did not react. Now we understand why, he was working out his K,O. blow. Now, it is he who disowns the boss who seems to have swallowed his tongue.

One fear I have expressed several times is to see foreign agencies and organizations taking over the process and pushing solutions they would not envisage in their own countries. In fact, I have been part of discussions in which it was suggested to entrust baccalaureate level students with teaching English after having provided them with a few weeks training. The suggestion was rejected at the time but I am neither sure the current propositions are much brighter nor that those at the helm are apt to resist the pressures of such temptations.

To make sure the political decision achieves its objectives, and that is all one can talk about now, is to make sure the professional profiles of those who will implement the project are appropriate and that the overall setup for its unfolding is adequate. One simple but sure way to define profiles would be to borrow those of the home countries of the consultants and experts of the foreign agencies advising the Minister. If they hire teachers with high school diplomas and deliver them their own kids after two or three week training programs, that would be a decent benchmark. If, however, an agency whose country requires academic, training and certification conditions which they do not recommend for Morocco, we would know they are neither earnest nor honest and are operating with agendas whose objectives would be hard for them to admit.

It would seem that the minimum conditions for one to be candidate to a teaching position in any pre-college level is a Bachelors degree and a one year training in a teachers’ college and to complete a certification process successfully. These conditions would ensure that the teachers will have an appropriate mastery of the language both at the fluency and accuracy levels, a good knowledge of the culture, history and civilization of the foreign language and the professional qualifications to teach it. This would be the first initiation steps to the profession. For a functional integration into the system, the novice fully qualified teacher would need to be in a supporting environment that would ensure them personal growth and professional development.

The actual support is provided by senior teachers in every school, teacher supervisors and a systematic in-service teacher development program. Other than this minimum, the reform will precipitate the educational system in a darker abyss and at an uncontrollable increasing speed. Other than this, Morocco will end up with a generation of speakers of foreign languages who can hardly be understood before it will have to make new decisions and reforms, Furthermore, the efforts that would have been made to shift to teaching subject areas in these newly introduced foreign languages would end driving the nail of functional illiteracy deeper and draw the country faster into incompetence and disqualify it from the economic competition it was initially planning to reach with this reform.

The issue of teaching materials in the newly adopted foreign languages is also a matter of critical importance. I remember from personal experience that every proposition to introduce a change in the foreign languages taught and in their functions and objectives, the propositions have been twinned with offers of packages of course books, textbooks, pedagogical materials, training expertise. There were times in which the packages were part of more general offers including loans and political conditions. The Minister did not talk about who is to design, write, edit, publish and print the teaching materials, We are not talking peanuts but billions of dirhams over decades. He did not talk either about the political, economic and ideological cost of the operation.

While the idea may be beautiful, the force of its attraction may be blinding to the risks it entails. The flower may look beautiful, but how sure are we there is no serpent underneath ….. would have warned good old William.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy.