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Join on Telegram The British Ambassador to Morocco Simon Martin visited the British International School of Casablanca (BISC) on Jan. 17 to sign the embassy’s partnership with the school on the Chevening scholarship.
Established in 1983, the Chevening program provides a full scholarship covering travel, living, and tuition costs for qualified international students to study for a one-year master’s degree in any course at any accredited university in the UK.
BISC’s president Boubker El Fehdi said at the ceremony that the school’s launch of the Chevening scholarship with approximately MAD 3 million per year aims to help students who do not have the means to study abroad.
The president said he hopes the students can “become the leaders of tomorrow” and “create a bridge between the two countries [Morocco and UK].” In addition to the British government’s funding, BISC and its holding company H&A Investment are also sponsoring one Chevening scholar.
This year, 11 Moroccans received the Chevening scholarship, and for the next academic year, over 1,500 scholarships will be offered worldwide. Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree and two years of work experience, in addition to meeting other criteria.
Once the program is complete, alumni known as Cheveners have access to a global network of over 56,000 alumni from more than 160 countries and territories with events and career connections. They are also obligated to return to their home country for at least two years afterward, which mitigates the “Brain Drain” exodus of highly-educated Moroccans.
Attraction to an international education
In addition to the signing, Martin toured BISC’s sprawling 5-hectare campus that features an indoor heated swimming pool, sports fields, and an open-air Roman theater. BISC opened in 2016 as the first out of six British secondary schools in Morocco.
Using the prestigious Cambridge Curriculum, BISC services a diverse student body of over 40 nationalities with an emphasis on English language teaching and experiential pedagogy through the Cambridge Curriculum. Outside of academics, BISC offers a variety of extra-curricular programs including sports and volunteering opportunities.
Martin stated the growing popularity of British schools in Morocco and the competitive nature of the Chevening scholarship.
The scholarship program has received over 700 applications for a limited number of places, which serves to reflect “the great interest not only in the English language but also in the British system of studies.”
In addition to attending international schools within Morocco and obtaining post-graduate degrees abroad, Moroccan or Moroccan-descent students are also undertaking undergraduate studies at prestigious English-speaking universities beyond the UK.
A shift toward the English language
Indeed, Morocco is seeing a rapid shift toward English language learning as opposed to the previous focus on French. In a 2021 British Council study, researchers found that English is expected to “replace French as Morocco’s primary foreign language in the next five years.”
The study’s key findings showed 65% of young Moroccans regard English as important, compared to 62% in Arabic and 47% in French.
The Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research, and Innovation Abdellatif Miraoui supports the growth of English through a series of reforms that will take place in September 2023.
Namely, undergraduate students must achieve a lower-intermediate level in English, and PhD students must provide their TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) certificate to prove English proficiency.
English learning is also growing outside of classrooms through the internet. In a September 2022 interview with MWN, Martin said that “often people tell me that they studied English from Netflix.”
He explained the growing use of English in Morocco is “a trend that’s happening. It’s not me or the British government that is doing it.”
BISC’s location in Casablanca caters to Moroccans’ increasing desire for an English education as the third cheapest city in the world for international education in 2022, according to a report by the International School Database.
