The Arabic Language

14.2 Independence and Arabicisation
During the colonial period, some half-hearted efforts had been made by the 
colonial administration to introduce bilingual education for Arabic-speaking 
children, but in the few schools that provided this system Arabic was relegated to 
the position of an extracurricular curiosity. In the first period after independence, 
this situation was more or less perpetuated. In bilingual schools, French remained 
the language of instruction for ‘important’ subjects, such as mathematics, 
physics and economics, whereas Arabic was used in classes on literature, history 
and religious education. Although for political reasons Arabic was declared the 
national language, initially French remained the main language in education and 
administration. In all three Maghreb countries, campaigns for Arabicisation were 
set up at an early stage to change this linguistic situation. While the background 
to these campaigns was similar, there were noticeable differences in the course 
that they took in the three countries involved, analysed in detail by Grandguil
-
laume (1983). These differences can be explained by several factors: the length 
of the French presence; the number of French colonists; and the presence of a 
Berber minority.
In Tunisia, the French left behind a sizeable bilingual elite; Berber did not play 
a role here, since it was spoken only in the south by no more than 0.5 per cent of 
the population. After independence, Arabicisation became the official policy of 
the government, but at a slow pace. Although certainly dedicated to the intro
-
duction of Arabic himself, Bourguiba, who was the first president of Tunisia from 
1957 to 1987, was not in favour of a hasty transfer. In his own public speeches, he 
tended to use an intermediate register, and on several occasions he declared that 
Classical Arabic was not the language of the Tunisian people. This became one of 
the key notions of the language debate in Tunisia: Arabicisation should not aim 

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Bilingualism 
261
at the wholesale introduction of a standard form of the language, but allow for 
a considerable amount of bilingualism and, at least according to some people, 
proper attention to the Tunisian dialect.
Although in the public debates the importance of Arabicisation was stressed, 
many intellectuals feared the reintroduction of orthodox Islam in the thoroughly 
secularised society of Tunisia as the result of exaggerated Arabicisation. In the 
administration, Arabicisation was not carried out systematically, even though 
some ministries were Arabicised completely, for instance, the Ministries of Justice 
and Interior Affairs in 1970. At the same time, however, many people still professed 
their preference for a bilingual approach and did not want to lose what they 
regarded as an achievement of Tunisian society. Besides, many people agreed with 
Bourguiba that the proper Arabic language of Tunisia was the Tunisian dialect.
In the Tunisian schools, a revolutionary reform was started in 1958. It aimed 
at the Arabicisation of the school system by setting up a two-track curriculum 
that gave parents the option of sending their children either to a monolingual 
Arabic stream (
section A
) or to a bilingual French/Arabic stream (
section B
). The 
problems were predictable: lack of teaching materials; lack of teachers proficient 
in teaching in Arabic; and, most of all, lack of interest on the part of parents, who 
wished to provide their children with the best chance of succeeding in society, 
which meant sending them to a bilingual school. After ten years, the project was 
officially abandoned and the