The Arabic Language

sections A
disappeared. Some measure of Arabicisa
-
tion was carried out, however, and the first three years in primary education 
remained completely Arabic, as did some of the disciplines in secondary educa
-
tion (philosophy, geography, history).
In the years after Bourguiba, the situation in Tunisia started to change in 
favour of Arabic. Even at university level, there was constant pressure on teachers 
to adopt Standard Arabic for their classes, and even those teachers who believed 
that it was impossible to teach their specialised subject in Arabic by and large 
abandoned the exclusive use of French. At present, teaching in primary schools 
takes place in Arabic, but from the third grade onwards French is introduced as 
a foreign language at a rate of 9–11 hours per week. In secondary schools, the 
humanities are taught in Arabic and the ‘hard’ sciences are taught in French 
(Daoud 2007: 267–70).
In the 1990s, emergent Islamic fundamentalism became a powerful factor. On 
the whole, the fundamentalists were against any form of education in French 
and wished to give Arabic its rightful place in the curriculum. This meant that 
the language question was increasingly linked with religious issues. After the 
Jasmine Revolution and the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, 
this link was once again underscored by Rached Ghannouchi (b. 1941), leader of 
the Ennahda Party. After the historic victory of his party in the 2011 elections, 
Ghannouchi stated in an interview with 
Middle East Online
(26 October 2011) 
that Arabic–French bilingualism represented a ‘linguistic pollution’ of Tunisia’s 

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262
The Arabic Language
identity. It is obvious, then, that the future of Arabicisation versus bilingualism in 
Tunisia will depend to a great deal on the political development.
One interesting side-effect is mentioned by Daoud (2007: 277ff.), who claims 
that the position of English in Tunisia may not represent a direct challenge to 
French, but still, English is gradually becoming more important and visible in 
public life. This may be rather a surface phenomenon, but it is true that serious 
efforts are being made to introduce it in the curriculum of the schools at an early 
grade. One of the reasons for this popularity may be that English does not bring 
with it the kind of resentment that French still does, so that it might be accept
-
able not only to secularists, but also to Islamists who are firmly opposed to French 
influence. 
The linguistic situation in Morocco is determined by several factors. First, 
the country has the largest Amazigh minority of all Maghreb countries, some 
estimates going as high as 50 per cent. Second, the French language played an 
important practical role because of the commercial relations between Morocco 
and Europe. Third, the language question was always closely connected with 
the political situation because of the connection with the throne: after King 
Mohammed V’s return to an independent Morocco in 1956, the monarchy, Islam 
and the Arabic language became an unbreakable triad.
In the colonial period, the degree of schooling was very low. The overwhelming 
majority of the pupils in the French schools were French, and only a very small 
number of Moroccan children actually went to these schools. In 1945, for instance, 
the number of French pupils was 45,000, that of Moroccan pupils 1,150. Contrast 
this with the total number of pupils in primary and secondary schools in 1957, 
just after independence: primary 530,000; secondary 31,000; and in 1965: primary 
1,000,000, secondary 130,000 (Grandguillaume 1983). To put these figures in 
perspective: according to UNESCO statistics, in 2002, 4.1 million children were 
enrolled in primary and 1.7 million in secondary schools. The only alternative for 
Moroccan pupils in the colonial period was that of the traditional schools, starting 
with the 
kuttāb
and culminating in the traditional university of the Qarawiyine 
in Fes.
In the period after independence, several attempts were made to Arabicise 
the schools. But plans for a complete Arabicisation of primary schools and at a 
later point of secondary schools in 1959 were postponed because of the practical 
problem of actually introducing Arabic education in the sciences. At the present 
time (Ennaji 2005: 105–7), all public schools at the primary and secondary level 
are completely Arabicised, with a progressive number of hours dedicated to 
the teaching of French as a foreign language. In higher education, the language 
choice depends on the subject: technical disciplines are taught in French, human
-
ities in Arabic. In addition, there is a large number of private schools, which are 
free in their language choice. Some of these offer a completely French-based 
education.

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Bilingualism 
263
The campaigns to Arabicise the administration were mostly half-hearted. As 
a political issue, Arabicisation was important, especially in the context of estab
-
lishing Arabic as the only language of the country to counter the influence of 
Berber. In practice, even after more than fifty years, several departments have 
retained the use of French as a working language. According to many reports, 
the employees in the