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<h1 class="bold">Algeria school language reform hits nationalist raw nerve</h1>
<span id="spnDate" class="block datestamp">2015-08-05 13:29</span>
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<p>Algiers - Apparently
modest reform proposals for primary education in Algeria have touched
off a firestorm of protest, highlighting deep sensitivities about
language and identity half a century after independence from France.</p><p>Standard
Arabic has been the North African nation's sole official language since
1962, even though virtually no Algerians have it as their mother tongue
and it has to be learnt at school.</p><p>A little over a quarter of the population speak dialects of the Berber language, also widely spoken in neighbouring Morocco.</p><p>Nearly all the rest speak dialects of Arabic that are heavily influenced by French and Spanish as well as Berber.</p><p>Education
Minister Nouria Benghebrit has proposed that for the first two years of
primary school, teachers be allowed to give lessons in dialect to help
children master the standard language.</p><p>She says that generations
of children have had their educations blighted by the shock of being
taught exclusively in a language they cannot speak.</p><p><strong>Political discourse</strong></p><p>There are many countries where the language of education differs from that of the home.</p><p>But
in few parts of the world is the issue as charged as in Algeria, where
political discourse is still dominated by the bloody eight-year war to
break away from France and forge an Arab and Islamic nation.</p><p>Benghebrit's
proposals have drawn accusations from nationalists and Islamists alike
that she is dishonouring the memory of the hundreds of thousands of
Algerians who lost their lives and "betraying the cause they fought
for".</p><p>Islamist lawmakers of the Green Alliance demanded her immediate dismissal.</p><p>For
Benghebrit, the proposals, which stem from the recommendations of a
national conference on education standards held in Algiers late last
month, are simply about improving schooling for children.</p><p>She says that Algerian children suffer educationally and developmentally by not being taught in their mother tongue.</p><p><strong>Good grades</strong></p><p>"By
using a child's mother tongue in schooling, you develop an important
part of the brain," she told the El-Watan newspaper, citing
neurologists.</p><p>"To increase the linguistic abilities of children, you have to build on their mother tongue."</p><p>Benghebrit said the current system left many pupils at a disadvantage throughout their studies.</p><p>"If
children do not master the Arabic language used in school, they will
not achieve good grades, in maths and sciences included."</p><p>The minister has the backing of Algeria's chief inspector for teaching methods, Farid Benramdane.</p><p>"You have to introduce academic Arabic gradually," Benramdane told El Khabar newspaper.</p><p>"The child must not be subjected to any shock in discovering that the language of school is not that of the home," he said.</p><p><strong>'Purity of the language'</strong></p><p>But
any use of dialect in the classroom, even as an aid to teaching
Standard Arabic, is anathema to the conservatives who have controlled
the education ministry for most of the years since independence.</p><p>They
have rounded on Benghebrit's French education - she studied sociology
in Paris - and accused her of wanting to return Algeria to the colonial
era when they say dialect was encouraged in a bid to undermine Arab
nationalism.</p><p>The Muslim clergy, or ulema, charge that her proposals threaten to sully the language of the Koran.</p><p>Association
of Ulema official Amar Talbi urged "civic groups and cultural
associations to defeat this proposal so that we can preserve the purity
of the language and protect it from any threat".</p><p>Language policy has proved controversial throughout Algeria's modern history.</p><p>Berber
was finally recognised as a national, but not an official, language in
2002, allowing it to be taught as a second language in some Berber
areas.</p><p>But even that reform came only after decades of protests in
the most populous Berber-speaking region, Kabylie, east of Algiers,
many of which were bloodily suppressed.</p><p>And while French remains
the main language of business and scientific education, conservatives
have repeatedly tried to reduce its role too.</p><p>In 1998, the then government adopted a law imposing the exclusive use of Standard Arabic in all institutions.</p>But
its implementation has been postponed indefinitely because of the
practical difficulties of entirely abandoning the language of the
colonial power.<br><br><a href="http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Algeria-school-language-reform-hits-nationalist-raw-nerve-20150805-4">http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Algeria-school-language-reform-hits-nationalist-raw-nerve-20150805-4</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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