Rabat – A new report by the National Federation of Amazigh Associations (FNAA) has outlined the difficulties facing the Amazigh language’s integration as an official language in Morocco’s government and schools.
Despite being enshrined in the Moroccan constitution as an official language 11 years ago, the officialization of Tamazight has been much slower than necessary, FNAA said.
In the education field, the federation yet again decried the pace of the integration process, noting that only two years are left until the official deadline to start teaching the Amazigh language across all levels of public schooling.
Tamazight teachers continue to face systemic issues and discrimination, with didactic training for them being often put on hold, the federation said. This “points to an active threat to the contents and victories of the 2011 constitution,” noted FNAA’s report.
It also mentioned the Ministry of Education inflating the numbers of students enrolled in Amazigh language programs, and insisted that Moroccans residing abroad are not receiving adequate access to the education.
While acknowledging efforts toward the media integration and usage of the language, the FNAA said they remain inadequate. As a result, it argued, Tamazight continues to be treated more as a dialect than a standalone language.
The report also decries that productions in the Amazigh language continue to be underfunded and understaffed compared to those in Arabic.
The institutional implementation of the language has been similarly lagging, FNAA added, pointing out that most implementations have been purely superficial and not as wide.
For the federation, Tamazight must be used in an equal capacity to Arabic and French, and not relegated to being an afterthought that is only fit for translating official documents.
Morocco’s new government, elected in October of 2021, and led by Aziz Akhannouch, has vowed to make the integration of the language a priority, and to achieve the goals set by the 2011 constitution as soon as possible.
But FNAA’s report insisted the government should expedite the process of officializing the language. Such a push, it concluded, would help preserve a crucial part of the country’s history and cultural fabric, while also allowing Moroccans to put their Amazigh knowledge to use in professional and official capacities.
Read also: House of Councilors to Adopt Tamazight in Parliament Sessions
