Morocco to generalize Amazigh at primary schools, targeting 4 million pupils by 2030

Primary school students in Morocco will start learning Amazigh starting the next school year, announced on Thursday the Ministry of Education.

The introduction of the language into primary-school curricula will be gradual, said the Ministry in a statement, starting the 2023/2024 school year, to achieve widespread teaching by the start of the 2029/2030 school year.

This project is in line with the provisions of the Kingdom’s Constitution, which stipulates that Amazigh is an official language of the State.

This shortly follows King Mohammed VI’s recent decision to make the Amazigh new year a national holiday, and the Education Ministry’s decision to launch English teaching in middle schools.

In concrete terms, the Ministry aims is to achieve a coverage rate of 50% of schools offering instruction in Amazigh by the start of the 2025-2026 school year.

The Ministry is announcing that the measures undertaken include the establishment of supervisory and steering structures at all levels, and initial and in-service training for teachers to improve their pedagogical skills. This involves mastering both the distribution of classes and optimal management of human resources.

In addition, regular supervision and support will be provided by educational inspectors, reinforcing the use of ICT and promoting the use of digital resources in the teaching of the Amazigh language.

The teaching of the Amazigh language will benefit an approximate 4 million students accross 12,000 primary schools by 2030, said Chakib Benmoussa, Minister of National Education, Preschool and Sports, in Rabat on Thursday.

A roadmap has been drawn up for the widespread teaching of the Amazigh language, said Benmoussa in response to journalists at a press briefing following the Government Council today, indicating that Amazigh is currently taught in 1,660 primary schools, with a total of 330,000 students.

Expanding the network of establishments where Amazigh is taught requires an increase in the number of specialized teachers and bilingual teachers from the start of the next school year, he maintained, pointing out that the number of these specialized teachers has risen from 200 to 400 each year, in addition to the recruitment of 1,500 to 2,000 bilingual teachers annually.

Benmoussa pointed out that these figures would make it possible to achieve these quantified and measurable objectives, adding that the Ministry would be gradually extending the teaching of the Amazigh language at primary level from the start of the next school year, with a view to extending it to all primary schools by 2029-2030.