<h1 class="entry-title">Arabization and Language Policy: The Case of Morocco and Algeria</h1>
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Written on <span class="entry-date published">March 20, 2012</span> by <a rel="author" class="author-link fn nickname url" href="http://bokamosoafrica.org/author/bouchra" title="View all posts by Bouchra">Bouchra</a> in <a href="http://bokamosoafrica.org/category/history" title="View all posts in History" rel="category tag">History</a>, <a href="http://bokamosoafrica.org/category/language" title="View all posts in Language" rel="category tag">Language</a>, <a href="http://bokamosoafrica.org/category/leadership" title="View all posts in Leadership" rel="category tag">Leadership</a>, <a href="http://bokamosoafrica.org/category/politics" title="View all posts in Politics" rel="category tag">Politics</a>
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<p>Using one language as the medium of instruction seems to be
inevitably successful in some countries. However, in multilingual
societies such as Morocco and Algeria, basing education on one medium of
instruction results in the failure of the whole educational system. In
this article, I plan to talk about Arabization, which was implemented as
a language policy and a medium of instruction in Morocco and Algeria in
the 60s. All textbooks, road signs and government documents were
translated from French to Arabic. Unfortunately, the then newly
introduced policy did not seem to work well neither in either country,
the weaknesses of the policy are still visible in the population of
these two North African countries, especially Morocco.</p>
<p>Arabization policy is aimed at the spread of the use of Arabic by the
suppression of French and other local languages such as colloquial
Arabic and Tamazight. Before proceeding to the implementation of the
Arabization policy, authorities should have considered the fact that
Arabic needed a thorough terminology coining for the teaching of science
and technology. Consequently, the weakness of Arabic to fulfill the
needs of education led Algerians to maintain the use of French.
Similarly, by the time the first Arabized student cohort reached higher
education, Morocco’s Ministry of Education had no other choice, but to
decree a new law that allowed the use of French in universities despite
the pressure exerted in elementary schools. As a response, attempts were
made to enrich Arabic’s vocabulary, but the fact that Arabic required
the use of many words to express one word in French or English led to
more confusion and impreciseness. This handicap made the Arabization
policy an unbalanced, inconsistent and incomplete one, which resulted in
the low proficiency of lots of students in both languages: Standard
Arabic and French.</p>
<p>Moreover, the disaster was the unpreparedness of students to deal
with French as they were not allowed to become proficient enough in it
to pursue more complex fields of studies such as mathematics,
engineering or biology. As a result, the standards of the institutions
declined dramatically because students struggled first and foremost with
French and then the content. It would be false to generalize about
student proficiency in French. Some were able to talk about their field
of studies in French, but not in Arabic.</p>
<p>Some people claim that Arabization was intended to separate between
the elite and other social classes in order to reduce competition for
the prestigious and highly paid careers. Thus, the elite made sure that
their children grew up more proficient in French than Arabic since
French has always been the language of commerce in Morocco. It is a
well-respected Moroccan norm to speak French better than Arabic because
of its social capital. The other aim behind Arabization is the strive
for a monolingual nation and for an Arab-Islamic identity that is
independent from all western and internal influence. Arabization policy
leaders have ignored that both Algeria and Morocco are linguistically
diverse. Consequently, Tamazight speakers started to be very active in
promoting the consideration and use of their languages and won the
battle only at the end of 2011 when Tamazight became an official
language after the amendment of the Moroccan constitution.</p>
<p>The elite did not want to have many competitors in jobs that pay big
salaries and they were smart enough to educate their children either in
French schools or in prestigious private schools. This interpretation
could also be extended and related to current events and claim that
authorities wanted to reduce the percentage of educated people because
the government may not be able to employ all the youths and unemployment
would be a difficult thing to deal with, especially at this time that
most revolutions in the Arab world resulted from the high rate of
unemployment, corruption and inequality of opportunities.</p>
<p>The leaders know very well how students in the 60s and the 70s were
successful, knowledgeable and intelligent bilinguals. Leaving French as
the medium of instruction in higher education was perhaps meant to be an
impediment for students to face problems and challenges which will
result in their low qualification for the job market. However, some of
the students managed to become proficient in French by practice and the
hard work they devoted to the language along with the course content.</p><p><a href="http://bokamosoafrica.org/2012/03/arabization-and-language-policy-the-case-of-morocco-and-algeria.html">http://bokamosoafrica.org/2012/03/arabization-and-language-policy-the-case-of-morocco-and-algeria.html</a><br>
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