Day 3 started off with a lesson on the Moroccan education system. Morocco’s city of Fes is home to al-Karaouine the oldest and continuously run university in the world founded in 859. It was founded with an associated school or madrasa which became one of the leading spiritual and education centers of the historic Muslim world. The education system has four levels: first pre-school, then kindergarten and koranic schools, then primary schools and then secondary schools. They have both private and public schools. Public schools are paid by the government and private schools are not. There are four education cycles: original, pre-school and primary, lower secondary and secondary. The secondary schools have three tracks they are:
The next lesson for the day was my favorite on the languages of Morocco. Moroccans are multilingual and tend to code switch between languages when speaking and it is considered the norm. Code switching requires no real effort on the speaker it comes very natural to them. They speak Arabic, French, English and a little Spanish. Because of the code switching Moroccans can understand all dialects of the Arabic language. The majority of the population is functionally multilingual and can effortlessly switch from one language to another they switch between:
After lunch was our first school visit. We visited Moulay Youssef High School an elite public school which concentrates on teaching mathematics, science and engineering. We toured the school and dorms, met students, teachers and the principal. The students at the school weren’t much different to the student’s I teach. They wore similar clothing liked to play video games, Facebook, and were familiar with popular American music.
Our last organized event was visiting the Udayas Kasbah which was a castle by the sea with white wash buildings with blue trim.
- The modern track, which is the continuation of the French system which would involve going to the colleges and universities. Students in this track either goes in to the humanities or math and science track.
- The original track which focuses on Koranic teachings (religion or bible).
- The technical track to have a skill for the work place a vocation.
The next lesson for the day was my favorite on the languages of Morocco. Moroccans are multilingual and tend to code switch between languages when speaking and it is considered the norm. Code switching requires no real effort on the speaker it comes very natural to them. They speak Arabic, French, English and a little Spanish. Because of the code switching Moroccans can understand all dialects of the Arabic language. The majority of the population is functionally multilingual and can effortlessly switch from one language to another they switch between:
- Standard Arabic (Fusha) the official language used by media and teachers.
- Moroccan Arabic (Derija) the vernacular or everyday language
- Tamazight the mother tongue the language of the early inhabitants
- French the language of the elite.
- English taught in many high schools
- Spanish taught as an elective in many high schools.
After lunch was our first school visit. We visited Moulay Youssef High School an elite public school which concentrates on teaching mathematics, science and engineering. We toured the school and dorms, met students, teachers and the principal. The students at the school weren’t much different to the student’s I teach. They wore similar clothing liked to play video games, Facebook, and were familiar with popular American music.
Our last organized event was visiting the Udayas Kasbah which was a castle by the sea with white wash buildings with blue trim.