Activists call for qualified Amazigh language instruction

[arriset]

Moroccan schools are falling short in teaching Amazigh to students despite an agreement with language groups to incorporate Amazigh classes in all Moroccan schools, several Amazigh language-rights groups claim.

Schools are having trouble teaching Amazigh to students for the required three instruction hours per week, as stipulated by an agreement reached between the Ministry of Education and the Moroccan Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM), said IRCAM member Ahmed Assid.

"It's been noticed that some school principals are replacing the three hours of teaching Amazigh by tutoring," Assid said. "The struggle is about changing attitudes since the state has long advocated Arabisation."

There are 110 other organisations calling for the immediate adoption of Amazigh-language classes throughout all of Morocco's schools, he said. They fear that the language is falling out of favour with teachers and school administrators.

AFRAK, another language-rights group, called for a more "standardised and unified teaching" of the Amazigh language.

IRCAM rector Ahmed Boukous is confident, however, that Amazigh will regain its position in the Moroccan curriculum once several obstacles are cleared.

The biggest problem facing the implementation of Amazigh classes in schools is the lack of qualified teachers in the subject, he said.

To address this problem, IRCAM has begun developing an educational programme for the preparation of Amazigh textbooks, and regional educational centres will begin to offer training sessions for teachers, trainers and inspectors to master the language, Boukous said.

There has already been much progress in teacher training, said IRCAM General-Secretary Houcine Mujahid. So far, some 12,000 teachers, 300 inspectors and 558 school principals have received Amazigh training through the institute.

The government is making substantial efforts to bring Amazigh instruction to all Moroccan schools, a Ministry of Education spokesman said. About 500,000 students in 3400 schools will study the language this year, according to ministry statistics. Amazigh language instruction was only offered at 317 schools nationwide in 2003, when Morocco first included Amazigh in the national curriculum.

Training teachers to lead Amazigh classes does not address the root problem, one Amazigh teacher said.

The current fractured state of the language itself may be to blame for its scattershot inclusion in Moroccan schools, Baâlla Jamal said. The language now includes three distinct dialects in Morocco alone.

"The Amazigh language must be standardised using a scientific rigour to make its learning easier. It is one thing that hasn't been established yet," Jamal said.

Other Moroccans are critical of the new focus being placed on acquiring Amazigh language skills, especially in an age of globalisation when the mastery of other languages may be essential.

More importance should be attached in Moroccan schools to learning English and Chinese, MP Fatima Moustaghfir said. She dismissed Amazigh claims that the language must be taught to ensure its survival.

"The Amazighs have managed to preserve their language without schools," she noted. "In several regions, they only speak the Amazigh language. We shouldn't focus on [Amazigh-language] education because there are other priorities related to globalisation."

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