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Morocco: 40% of our schools teach Amazigh language

January 14, 2025 at 10:34 am

Street sign in three languages Mirleft, southern Morocco, north Africa [Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images]

Forty per cent of schools in Morocco teach the Amazigh language, Minister of National Education Mohamed Saad Berrada said yesterday.

Addressing the House of Representatives, Berrada said: “The number of schools teaching Amazigh in the country is 3,400, which constitutes 40 per cent of the total schools in the country.”

He added that “the number of students studying Amazigh has reached 650,936.”

Berrada noted that the number of Amazigh teachers increased from 200 in 2021, to 600 in 2022, then to 1,200 in 2023, and to 1,850 in 2024.

According to the minister, the country intends to “train 3,000 teachers to teach Amazigh in order to integrate it in all schools.”

He pointed out that “Amazigh is a constitutional duty, a royal conviction, and a governmental commitment.”

Morocco has adopted the Amazigh language in a limited number of schools since 2003.

The Moroccan Constitution of 2011 stipulates, in Article 5, that “Arabic is the official language of the State. The State works for the protection and for the development of the Arabic language, as well as the promotion of its use. Likewise, Tamazight [Berber/Amazighe] constitutes an official language of the State, being common patrimony of all Moroccans without exception.”

The Amazigh are local people who inhabit the region extending from the Siwa Oasis in western Egypt in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Sahara Desert in the south.

The Amazigh of Morocco celebrate the Amazigh New Year, which falls on 13 January of each year, with various rituals, traditions, and cultural and artistic events that have been passed down for many generations.

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