Around 30 professionals graduated from Moroccan Sign Language training on Friday at the Faculty of Education, supporting Morocco’s push for greater social and educational inclusion for people with hearing disabilities.
This achievement comes as the kingdom faces a shortage of sign-language teachers, interpreters, and educators for more than 300,000 Moroccans with hearing impairments, including 30,000 children aged 5 to 15.
The six-month training included both deaf and hearing students from cities across the country, including Casablanca, Guelmim, Mohammedia, Tetouan, Agadir, Fes, Meknes, Inezgan, Temara, Sale, Rabat, and Kenitra, providing them with practical tools to communicate with deaf individuals.
Abdelaziz El Arsi, a university professor at the Faculty of Education Science and a researcher in Deaf studies, told Hespress English that this is the first cohort to complete the training in sign language, teaching, and bilingual education at the faculty.
He noted that the graduates are already professionals working with associations, either as staff or trainers.
Loubna Salah, a graduate from the first cohort, said the six-month training helped fill gaps she had encountered throughout her 17 years in the field.
As a coordinator for inclusive education at the Hanane Association in Tetouan, mainly working with deaf children, she explained that “the program helped her organize and structure practices she had previously applied more intuitively.”
“I work with children with all kinds of disabilities, hearing, cognitive, or physical, and this university certificate helps me guide families of deaf children more effectively,” she said, adding that it also taught her the proper ways to interact with people with disabilities.
A mother of a graduate with a hearing disability, who requested anonymity, told Hespress English that the initiative has given deaf people the opportunity to be heard, understood, and recognized.
She hopes the experience will have a positive impact on his life, enabling him to communicate more effectively with others and maybe teach younger generations who are just beginning to learn sign language.
For context, the event marked the launch of a new full-year Moroccan Sign Language university diploma, designed to train interpreters and trainers to strengthen inclusive communication in educational and social institutions, and open to students, professionals, and anyone interested in learning the language.
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