A Non-ending Debate About Languages in Morocco
Moroccans have missed many opportunities to catch up with the world and cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes. As the Chinese proverb say: “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is today”.
For decades, Morocco has never made up its mind about the language of choice for education. Many initiatives have come and go, and most have been labelled as a failure by the highest of local authorities. Currently, the debate is the language to adopt for teaching technical subjects in school.
This debate about the most suitable language is really unnecessary. Besides the ideological motives of the vocal supporters of each side, there is no denying that English is the dominant language in the world; in technical fields and even more in business and arts. The debate should not be about which language is better Arabic or French, but rather about how to start using English as soon as possible; given the available resources.
For decades Morocco adopted heavily French after the independence; and later switching to Arabic starting from the late 80s. There is no doubt that both languages have both failed miserably; not because they are inferior languages, but simply because English is so dominant. Today, English is by far the most spoken language and used to write scientific articles, publish books, conduct business, and marketing…etc.
In the present times any person who limits himself to one local language (except probably Mandarin in China), like French or Arabic, is just limiting his opportunities to reach a wider audience. Moroccans should not limit their opportunities because of using French or Arabic, to a tiny audience. There is a whole world out there to tap into and conduct business with.
In using English one can actually communicate to French and Arab speaking people in a more dignified way rather than feeling inferior because of being unable to master these difficult languages. English is known to be a far easier language to learn, and often picked up by casually watching movies, TV series by many young people worldwide without much effort.
If Moroccans have to choose a foreign language to teach technical topics, it clearly should be English. However, if the choice is only between French or Arabic, then French has a better edge over Arabic. The latter has been a disaster in Morocco to the agreement of many people including the education ministers.
It is a choice between the least of two bad choices, French at least offer a narrow window for Moroccans to conduct business with the French speaking nations no matter how limited these opportunities are.
Arabic by itself is not an inferior language, it just happens to have a very limited audience. And a far negligible output compared to English or French. For example, anyone online can find millions of references to every topic in English, a lot less in French, and almost nothing of credible value in Arabic.
The proponents of Arabic are themselves not trustworthy as most of their relatives are actually been sent to private schools where French and English are the dominant languages. These same people are likely campaigning for maintaining the status quo which is to their benefit in heavily unequal society.
Morocco is clearly not ready to implement English (or any other language) immediately at all levels. That can done, however, in stages starting at the university and high school levels. Such a plan can rolled in time intervals and can be completed within 10 years, if executed properly.
It would cost a lot of resources, but that is the price to pay for a long lasting solution that gives all citizens the equal education they deserve regardless of their economic background.
Moroccans have missed many opportunities to catch up with the world and cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes. As the Chinese proverb say: “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is today”.
