Morocco’s ministry of education has rolled out a project that is set to make English the primary language of learning scientific subjects in all levels of high school curriculums, Director of Curricula at the Ministry of National Education, Fouad Chafiki told Hespress EN.
Five model high schools that adopted since 2015 English as the learning language of all scientific subjects, as well as 250 others that introduced this year English as an optional language attest the success of the experiment, Chafiki said.
“This will pave the way for us to generalize teaching English in middle schools next year,”he said.
The idea is that with every coming year, English will be introduced in a downward fashion across middle school levels, in a way that encourages high school newcomers to take on scientific subjects in English.
Next year, for instance, will see students in the 2nd year of middle schools study English as a discipline – the year after will see English learning extended to the first year of middle schools.
In the 2027 school year, students registered in the first year of high school will be the first public school promotion to have studied English throughout the three years of middle school.
The same year will see the trickle down effect of the program reach primary schools, and applied on the fourth year students.
By 2030, Morocco will officially have four classes of students all over the country who were taught English for six years in both middle and high school.
“2030 is the last year of this strategic project, English will by then be an established discipline in middle schools, high schools, and then primary schools,” said the ministry official.
Chafiki said that there is strong belief that English could potentially become the first foreign language in a couple of years.
This will be done through a comprehensive training course for teachers spanning a year to a year and a half before they begin teaching primary courses in English, Chafiki told Hespress EN.
Teachers are now required to finish 6 to 8 hours of training every week in order to be adequately prepared to teach in English.
The national education ministry plans to recruit new staff, “We have a sufficient number of trained teachers with English literature degrees to help the implementation of the language in our educational system.”
This type of endeavors, said the official, requires many partnerships with bodies responsible for the languages in Morocco to ensure that proper background work is conducted in order to guarantee the success of such programs.
For example, before starting the international English baccalaureate in five exemplary high schools in Morocco, the ministry of education partnered with The British Council and Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane.
The only risk that remains, Chafiki fears, is that the program will be presented to students who are not ready for it. To avoid this, the program will be introduced gradually before being implemented across the country in middle and high schools.
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, Moroccan children and teenagers have been more exposed to English content on the internet, which could serve as a key factor in easing up this implementation, in addition to the growing interest in pursuing academic majors that are taught in English, he said.
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