Anna Tooele Lambertson
2004 African Studies Summer Institute
Investigative Paper
Language Policy in Morocco

Note: The bibliographic references cited in this paper were footnotes in the original document, and can be read in the DOC format copy of this page.

INTRODUCTION
Wilton S. Dillon, the then Director of Research at the Phelps-Stokes Fund in New York, published an article in 1963 in which he posed the following question: What do universities "have to do with nation-building"? In his study, Mr. Dillon focused on Africa, and quoted the president of the Republic of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, from his opening address to the University of Ghana shortly after Ghana gained independence. "A very heavy responsibility is being entrusted to you", said Dr Nkrumah. "The whole future of Ghana depends to a very considerable extent on the success of our programme for higher education and research...It is necessary, therefore, that we go about the task of organizing the new University in the most resolute manner...and that we set our eyes upon the main task which is to produce a University which will serve the needs of African unity, which will make practical and concrete contributions to the development of Ghana and the well-being of this country".1

The theme of Dr. Nkrumah's address was simple yet profound: the foundation of the new Republic lay not in the geographic boundaries of the nation-state but in its educational institutions. Mr. Dillon seconded this thought and then expanded it; the university was not only the foundation upon which a strong and vibrant country was predicated, a university was also a model of that nation. The university, according to Mr. Dillon, was an observation room of sorts, in which individuals (young men and women) learned to become citizens, having had instructors and administrators as models of what it meant to be Ghanaian, French, American, etc.

What do universities have to do with nation-building?; they are a microcosm of the nation, perhaps the greenhouse itself where tender, young seedlings are nurtured so that they might one day be transferred to larger fields. The university is “a nation writ small".2

The essay before you, however, is not a study of universities in Africa. Instead, it is an initial foray into the implementation of language policy and planning in primary and secondary education. This essay is also an inquiry into the way in which international declarations concerning education have affected language planning and how, in turn, language planning has increased or decreased the percentage of literate adults in a given country. I have chosen to use United Nations declarations on education as the lens through which I will examine education policy, because there must be a standard by which policy is assessed. Although I do not wish to imply that the United Nations has perfected its stand on education, nor that the way in which it rallies the countries of the world around its declarations and conventions is uniform or efficient, I do feel that the perspective that the UN has on education is balanced and fair.

This paper does not attempt to make definitive conclusions about either language policy or education. Instead, it attempts to examine the role that education plays in the creation and fortification of a country, and does so by examining not just education but the chosen language of instruction within education policy. I have chosen the Kingdom of Morocco as a case study. At its core, this essay holds to the assumption that, as education is fundamental, the strength (and identity) of a nation can be assessed by the quality of its educational institutions, just as the fortitude of a plant is found in its root and the stability of a man-made structure can be traced to its foundation.


NATION and STATE
If education is fundamental to nation-building, one must first define a nation before attempting to discern how education can be used to build a nation. According to Max Weber, a state is the set of rules that allows one body to rule and dominate another. The state is, therefore, a political entity and is predicated upon a relationship of rule "by men over men, one that rests on the use of legitimate violence".3 Violence, as used by Weber, however, is not meant to conjure images that one would normally associate with the term. Instead, Weber is indicating that the use of violence is any use of force which aids in the achievement of one's goal. For the state, argues Weber, violence is the only medium by which political goals may be reached. A state is, therefore, "the human community which...claims the monopoly of legitimate physical violence", violence being the only way to impose one's rule on another.3 Within this framework, violence is merely the means by which a state (a human community) exercises its power. In The Politics of Language in the Spanish-Speaking World, Mar-Molinero defines the state as "a political construct, marked out by borders which can be artificially drawn"(Mar-Molinero, 5). World geography is both natural and man-made. Geography is a natural phenomenon in the sense that there are continents, oceans and streams. However, due to the arbitrary borders drawn by man to denote the geographical frontiers of, among others, Algeria, Bolivia or France, geography is, also, artificial. The state, although a political entity, is also the term used to describe the physical constraints of a human community (the state).

In contrast, a nation does not necessarily concern physical boundaries (although, the concept of a nation does not preclude physical borders, either). Mar-Molinero indicates that a nation consists of the characteristics used to describe or define the human community that constitutes the state. That is, a state may be the geographically-defined borders of the state, or even the political power that defines the community, while a nation is the set of less tangible qualities of the state. A nation "may, but need not necessarily, include some or all of the following: a common language, race, religion, cultural traditions, history, body of laws, and territory"(Mar-Molinero, 5). In short, a nation is the ideological component of a state, but can exist without the more traditional borders or definitions normally ascribed to a state. And since language can be a reflection of the nation, and thus, of the ideology of the nation-state, language policy can be used to nurture national unity.

What role, if any, has language policy had in the creation of the Kingdom of Morocco? To respond to this question, the essay before you will examine first, the international conventions on education (which Morocco has endorsed) and will proceed to a study of the political history of Morocco.



THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL BODIES: Education/Literacy
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) asserts, "education is the foundation of personal fulfillment, of economic growth and of social cohesion"4 and as the educational appendage of the Organization of the United Nations, the influence of UNESCO is considerable. The United Nations first came into existence in October of 1945, upon the ratification of its Charter. Primarily created as an international response to the horrors committed before, and during, the Second World War, the United Nations is an organization of international bodies and declares its purposes to be the following:

"...to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations; to cooperate in solving international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems and in promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in attaining these ends."


The role of the UN (and of its educational arm, UNESCO) in global policy on education lies in the framework of the UN Charter and, more specifically, in its focus on the respect for human rights. Shortly after its inception, the United Nations issued, through the General Assembly, a Universal Declaration of Human Rights (ratified on December 10, 1948).This declaration reaffirmed the purposes already set forth by the Charter of the United Nations by broadening what was meant by human rights, and by dictating to which rights all mankind should have access. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states "Everyone has the right to education."5 Article 26 is intriguing because it formally introduces education as a basic human right and then briefly describes the education of which all mankind should be beneficiary: "Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms."5b As described by the United Nations, therefore, education is holistic and not limited by the scope of formal education.

As a basic human right, education is at the forefront of both UN and UNESCO activity and has been upheld in every subsequent convention on human rights. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (presented before the General Assembly in 1979, ratified in 1981) first defines "discrimination."ii It then lists the measures that nation-states should undertake to ensure gender equity in education, and "equal rights with men in the field of education ". The Convention on the Rights of the Child (entered into force September 2, 1990) also reaffirms the tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and declares the right of every child to citizenship, safety and to education. Moreover, "with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, [states parties shall] make primary education compulsory and available free to all and encourage ...different forms of secondary education."iv Notably, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is one of the most widely recognized and implemented human rights treaties.6 In its articles 32.1 and 32.2, the Convention "reaffirms the right of every child, 'without discrimination of any kind' to free and compulsory primary schooling, and states that the higher levels shall be 'accessible to all'".7

More recently, two international conferences on education have been of particular importance. The first is the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, and the second is the more recent World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000, during which the commitments made during the 1990 conference were reiterated. The participants at the World Conference on Education for All, in Thailand, in 1990, drew upon the premise of UNESCO, that the "education of humanity for justice and liberty and peace is indispensable to the dignity of man,"8 and insisted on greater global cooperation to strengthen equity in education. The conference concluded with the adoption of 10 goals through which Education for All (EFA) could be achieved. These goals, Articles 1 - 10 of the World Declaration on Education for All, established a set of expectations which each nation who ratified previous conventions on human rights and education would be expected to reach. EFA was also the foundation of the World Education Forum in 2000 as well as the standards against which all UN member states are judged. "Are you achieving the goals of Education for All (EFA)?” is the question since posed to all member states of the United Nations. The roadmap drawn by the Jomtien conference does not steer away from previous UN statements on education. Rather, EFA buttresses the holistic definition ascribed to education by the United Nations as early as 1948. According to the World Declaration on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, the "most urgent priority [was] to ensure access to, and improve the quality of, education for girls and women, and to remove every obstacle that hampers their active participation."9

In June of 1996, the same leaders who, six years prior, had committed themselves to improving the environment of education in the developing world, reconvened to assess the progress that had been made since Jomtien and to recommit themselves and their resources to the goal of Education for All. "Education is empowerment," declared the participants at the conference of 1996; that time in Amman, Jordan.

"It is the key to establishing and reinforcing democracy...and to peace founded upon mutual respect and social justice.[...] We have now met in Amman, Jordan...to review progress toward the goals set in Jomtien...and to find ways of overcoming persistent problems and confronting new challenges in order to achieve education for all (EFA)."10

The leaders who convened in Amman in 1996 found that some progress had been made towards an increase in primary school enrollment. They estimated that 50 million more children were enrolled in primary schooling than in 1990. It was also noted during the Amman Mid-Decade Meeting that the gender gap in education which had been so closely scrutinized in Jomtien still existed. Progress towards the goal of gender equity "has been excruciatingly slow,"11 complained the writers of the Amman Affirmation. In 1996, it was estimated that of the 900 million illiterate adults in the world, almost two-thirds were women. As the meeting drew to a close, it was concluded that a greater involvement on the part of "each country" was requisite in order to advance toward the goals of EFA. This involvement included an appreciation of local culture and customs as well as a clear understanding of civil conflict that might impede growth and stability in local schools.

The text adopted by the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in 2000 targeted the same goals. Commitment to Education for All (EFA) was restated: "Achieving EFA goals should not be postponed any longer. The basic learning needs of all can and must be met as a matter of urgency."12 The participants at the Dakar conference reasserted the obligation of nations to ensure basic education to all, regardless of gender or disability, and indicated that although progress had been made and should be applauded, such progress had been "uneven and far too slow."13 As the new millennium began, less than a third of the world's children under the age of six years received any primary education. Of those without primary schooling, 60 percent were girls. These figures were, of course, deemed unacceptable and in response, a framework for Action was established. Among the goals determined to be of utmost importance, the Dakar Framework declared, "All children must have then opportunity to fulfill their right to quality education in schools or alternative programmes at whatever level of education is considered 'basic' [and that] by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances, and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality."14 Furthermore, it was resolved to eliminate all gender disparities in primary education by 2005.15

According to a report issued in November of 2002, however, more than 70 countries "will fail to make the deadline of Education for All (…), and some are even going backwards."16 According to UNESCO, nearly 26% of the world's population would not reach even one of the three main goals determined in 2000 in Dakar to be the most accessible ("universal primary education, gender equality and the halving of illiteracy rates").16 Reasons for the failure were suggested, including a decline of 16% in education aid to developing countries between 1990 and 2000. Political instability was also to blame for the failure of some countries to meet the UN goals.

Language policy, although mentioned in various portions of the Dakar conference, is ambiguous. In 1996, however, the United Nations did issue a declaration, encouraging all nations to respect and to protect the right of minority groups to receive instruction in their mother tongue, and also to petition for the protection of their language. Known as the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, this declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December, 1992.

As this essay wishes to focus upon literacy as an indicator of education and given the divisive nature of literacy (what it is, what it entails, etc.), a brief analysis of literacy and its definition will now be explored.

The United Nations Development Program, in its annual Human Development Index report, defines adult literacy as the "percentage of people aged 15 and above who can, with understanding, both read and write a short, simple statement related to their everyday life"(UNDP, Human Development Indicators, 2003).

Sarah C. Gudschinsky provides a complimentary definition in her 1982 study, Literacy: The Growing Influence of Linguistics. Gudschinsky writes the following:

"That person is literate who, in a language he speaks, can read with understanding anything he would have understood if it had been spoken to him; and can write, so that it can be read, anything that he can say"(Gudschinsky, 3).

According to Gudschinsky, literacy is a tool of communication.

In 2003, the United Nations launched its Literacy Decade 2003 - 2012, with a commitment to bring literacy to all. The United Nations contends that "literacy is a plural concept, with diverse literacies shaped by their views in a particular context" (UN Literacy Decade, About the Decade). The Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Program (LAMP) of the United Nations does not provide a clear definition of literacy but does indicate that literacy intimates a use of "written materials" (2) and that previous characterizations of literacy have been incomplete.

"Why measure literacy?

Because literacy is essential to human and economic development...

Literacy plays a central role in contributing to economic prosperity, to good health, to cultural identity, civic participation and tolerance, and to individuals’ ability to realize their potentials. This is because the effective use of written materials is critical in today’s knowledgable societies; it is essential to their capacity to learn and to develop in a global economy. For individuals, lack of adequate literacy skills can lead to poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion."(LAMP, 2)

The United Nations acknowledges the task at hand and seems to be encouraging the world's nations to pursue literacy programs that address diverse populations. Current literacy studies are, according to the United Nations, "not sufficiently reliable" and "have been shown not to reflect reality very accurately". As stated, in page 3 of the UN presentation of LAMP, the most successful method by which one may assess the rate of adult literacy in any given country is through "direct measurement of the literacy profile". Literacy can no longer be defined as the simple acts of reading and writing. The United Nations argues that reading and writing, and even the number of students enrolled in school are not adequate indicators of literacy. The LAMP brochure indicates, for example, that although [Americans]

"are more likely to be capable of high level reading tasks if they have completed upper secondary school[...]some graduates show poor literacy skills, and some upper secondary school dropouts are highly literate"(3).

A traditional education cannot promise improved reading and writing skills, although the more substantial the education, the greater the chance that the individual will be literate.

The new Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Program (LAMP) of the United Nations wishes to provide nations with a method which can be used to assess literacy, in a way, which is direct and fair. Merely asking individuals if they are literate is insufficient. Instead, LAMP proposes that literacy rates be obtained by asking persons to prove that they are capable of communicating, by means other than speech, problems and issues that they "encounter in their real lives"(4). Some tactics used to assess "real" life literacy situations may include:

"The retrieval of specific information clearly stated in a set of instructions – an easy literacy task;
Locating and summarizing prominently stated information in a magazine article – a medium difficulty task;
Searching for embedded and more complex information in a report or an office memorandum – a harder literacy task" (4).

A more expansive and exhaustive definition of literacy is given by Clare Mar-Molinero in The Politics of Language in the Spanish-Speaking World. Mar-Molinero first acknowledges that literacy, as denoted in past studies, is only an examination of whether one can read or write. Mar-Molinero submits two outlines of literacy, functional literacy and critical literacy. Both terms are meant to allow for an estimation of literacy based on criteria which does not exclude groups which do not have a traditional written script (such as the adoption of a pictorial alphabet in the Chinese language) or who may explore written communication through other means than written letters on paper. Functional literacy underscores reading and writing and, writes Mar-Molinero, formalizes literacy as "right or wrong" (Mar-Molinero, 123) and does not consider the evaluee's interpretation of the written material. In contrast, critical literacy allows the reader and writer to read between the lines and to offer his/her own perspective. An estimation of critical literacy addresses the evaluee's ability to critically analyze written communication, as well as to creatively communicate ideas, rather than rely on a rote, functional method.

MOROCCO
In Morocco, the literacy rate is 43.7%. However, while 56.6. % of Moroccan males are literate, the literacy rate for Moroccan females is 31%.iii The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) echoes this data as well. According to the 2003 Human Development Index, female adult literacy in Morocco is 37.2% while 62.6% of men are literate. UNDP estimates that the percentage of female illiteracy in rural areas is substantially higher, at almost 90%. Furthermore, although primary school enrollment is one of the three attainable goals set forth by the World Education Forum of 2000, UNDP reports that, in Morocco, 86% of Moroccan boys are enrolled in primary school while only 67% of Moroccan girls attend primary school. According to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a mere 8% of girls in rural areas attend middle school, most having dropped out without completing their primary school education. Indeed, in the 2002 UNESCO report, Morocco was one of the 28 countries at risk of not attaining any one of the three primary EFA goals.

What, if anything, has Morocco done to move towards the EFA goal of literacy? And if Morocco has taken legitimate steps towards strengthening its educational system, why has so little progress been made? To seek an answer to these questions this essay will examine the social and civil history of the nation, and how language policy and national identity have become linked.

Morocco is a hereditary monarchy in North Africa of 446,550 sq. mi. and with a population of 29,661,636. Moroccans have a life expectancy of 68.87 years. The official language of Morocco is Arabic, although both Berber and French are spoken. Morocco adopted its first constitution in 1962 after gaining independence from France in 1956 (Morocco joined the United Nations during the eleventh session of the United Nations, shortly after its independencevii). The constitution has seen several revisions, most recently in 1996. In its preamble, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco "reaffirms its determination to abide by the universally recognized human rights [this author assumes this a reference to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights as well as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, both of which Morocco ratified, with a few misgivings]. Likewise, the preamble reaffirms [the determination of Morocco] to continue its steady endeavors towards the safeguard of peace and security in the world."viii Article 5 guarantees all Moroccans equality before the law, while Article 13 mandates equal rights in the pursuit of education and employment. Here, the author interjects that, although Articles 5, 9 and 1317 may proclaim all citizens of Morocco equal before the law, there are not any references made to the safeguarding of languages other than Arabic, nor are there stipulations laid out for circumstances in which an individual (a citizen of Morocco) may need further assistance beyond that already stated in the constitution, in order to access his/her rights. That is, although Article 8 of the 1996 constitution of Morocco guarantees Men and women...equal political rights, similar statements are not made regarding individuals who are, either of other ethnic groups (indigenous) or who speak other languages.

The Kingdom of Morocco is not, however, a homogenous community. In fact, its history long predates the Arab presence that has since, ruled the kingdom (the Alawite dynasty has been the hereditary ruler of Morocco since 1666)18. To situate Morocco's political and linguistic heritage, this essay will now provide the reader with a brief chronology of Moroccan history.

Morocco belongs to what is often referred to as the Maghreb region of Africa (the Maghreb includes Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria), although the Arabic word for Morocco is Maghreb, or where the sun sets. In the English language, the term Maghreb refers to the region in its entirety. According to the Library of Congress, human activity in the Maghreb can be dated as early as 8000 B.C.19 Over time, the communities occupying the region became the Berbers (Berber being a somewhat derogatory term, used by the Romans who would later invade). Berber was the generic term ascribed to any person, or group, who was not Latin or Greek, therefore Barbarian. Their language, often called Berber, but more justly named Amazigh, did not have any written form, and therefore, is often ignored in cultural and historical studies of Morocco. The Phoenicians, who arrived in North Africa nearly "three thousand years ago"20, lent their writing system to the Berber people. The rule of the Carthaginians followed and the Carthaginians were then supplanted by the Romans. Fatima Sadiqi writes that the Vandals, who arrived in 429, negotiated with the Berbers and the resulting peace between the Berbers and the Vandals created an alliance that drove out the Roman occupiers. It is interesting to note that, although the legacy that the Romans most commonly left in territories they occupied (if only briefly) was Christianity, the Roman heritage among the Berbers was a linguistic one; many words still used today in Berber have their root in Latin.21

The Arab invaders in the seventh century, however, left the most indelible impression upon the mold of what would become the Kingdom of Morocco. The Berbers accepted the religion of their Arab invaders, and even were conscripted into the Arab army as it wove its way along the northern portion of Africa.22 Converting to the religion of Islam meant more than just spiritual change. It also required the convert to pray in the sacred language of Allah, that language being Arabic. Linguistically, the Berber language has the same genealogy as Arabic, both being Chamito-Semitic.23 The alphabet adopted by many Berber people (from the Phoenicians) was not adopted by the Berbers inhabiting modern-day Morocco and, therefore, Arabic became the only written language used by the Moroccan Berbers. This disadvantage has resulted in many words being borrowed from Arabic by the Berber dialects, but little borrowing from Berber can be found in the lexicon of Arabic24.

Morocco existed as a portion of the Arab empire in northern Africa until the nineteenth century, which ushered in the era of the French occupation. Before the French arrived in North Africa, the Spanish had already made their presence known on the continent. Morocco was divided between Spain and France in 1904, but revolts throughout Morocco led to Morocco being named a French protectorate in 1912. This political situation lasted until 1956, when Morocco proclaimed its independence from France. The kingdom was ruled by His Majesty, Hassan II, until his death in 1999, whereupon his son, Mohammed XI, began his rule.

Given the rich linguistic heritage of Morocco, one can assume that language policy implemented in the kingdom has been equally diverse. Indeed, when the French arrived, in the nineteenth century, in North Africa, they found a well-established educational system, one in which all instruction was in Arabic. Just as their predecessors had imposed their language on the Berbers, so did the French impose their vernacular on the Arab-Berber people of Morocco. The educational system was reorganized to replicate the French system (upon the establishment of the French protectorate in 1912) and all instruction was, thereupon, in French. Clearly, instruction in French meant that both those who spoke Berber(Amazigh) as their mother tongue, and those who spoke Moroccan Arabic as their primary language, were receiving all instruction in a language that was, in fact, for them, a foreign language.

Upon independence in 1956, however, the newly established kingdom began to implement various policies that they felt were better representative of Morocco. In his book, French in and out of France, Kamal Salhi provides a chronology of laws that were passed regarding language policy in Morocco following its independence in 1956. In 1957, the Minister of Education insisted that primary school be taught in Arabic; however this policy was reversed in 1958. In 1960, it became mandatory for instruction in primary schools to be in the Arabic language. This program was meant to be progressive and to be finalized by the year 1964. However, it was only in 1967 (a decade after Morocco claimed its independence from France) that the so-called Arabization of the primary school system took hold, and in the early 1970s that primary schools throughout Morocco were fully equipped to teach all subjects in Arabic25. Mr. Sahli insists that, Arabization was meant to "[restore] an authentic identity"26 and that the instruction of Arabic in primary school (with the aim of implementing Arabic at all levels of instruction) was conceived as a "policy seen as central to the building of an independent nation"27. The policy of Arabization encompassed the secondary school system in 1983, the year in which "French was replaced by Arabic as the main language of instruction in Moroccan secondary schools".28

The Berber language (Amazigh) in Morocco suffers from a lowly status. Amazigh was only recently acknowledged as a part of Moroccan heritage, even though it is the oldest surviving language spoken in the Maghreb. In 1994, the king, Hassan II gave a speech in which he recommended the teaching of Berber in Moroccan schools (Sahli, 349). However, this recommendation was not implemented until September of this past year, when the Moroccan Youth Minister announced that, "the teaching of Amazigh will be done step by step in all primary and secondary schools of the country."35

It is clear that through its language policy, Morocco is still defining itself as a nation. A policy of arabization has been implemented with the distinct purpose of creating an Arab state, and government documents indicate that the official language of the kingdom is Arabic. Yet, almost fifty percent of the country does not speak Arabic as a native language. The state and the nation are not, therefore, the same.

In conclusion, the challenge confronting the lawmakers of the Kingdom of Morocco is to determine the language policy “under which national sentiment [will cohere]” (Brown, 141). The Kingdom of Morocco has agreed to abide by international conventions on the freedom of education, and must ensure equal access to education. Switching instruction in primary and secondary schools from French and Arabic to Amazigh is indispensable to the success of nearly half the population (the Berber people constitute nearly 40% of the population). Quoting Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, I offer that Morocco must create an educational environment "which will make practical and concrete contributions to the development of [Morocco] and the well-being of [the] country".1 Morocco has recognized the many cultures it has and, now, must actively embrace its plurality through a cohesive, yet encompassing, language policy. Only then will the education system truly be serving its people and providing a foundation upon which the country may continue to build.