The Journal of North African Studies

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English language teaching in Morocco: A focus on

the English department

Mohsine Jebbour

To cite this article: Mohsine Jebbour (2019): English language teaching in Morocco:
A focus on the English department, The Journal of North African Studies, DOI:
10.1080/13629387.2019.1681267

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2019.1681267

Published online: 24 Oct 2019.

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THE JOURNAL OF NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2019.1681267

English language teaching in Morocco: A focus on the

English department
Mohsine Jebbour
Language and Cross-Culture Facilitator, Peace Corps Morocco, Rabat, Morocco

ABSTRACT
This overview article opens up with the key factors contributing to the growth of
English in the education system in Morocco. The subsequent section places a
special focus on English language teaching in the Moroccan English
department. An important space is devoted to addressing the history,
changing mission, and contributions of the Moroccan English department as
an institution at university. The same section includes information about the
recent reforms regarding English language education and statistics and
figures involving students’ enrolment and graduation rates in the
departments of English. At last, the paper considers the challenges facing the
development of English language education in the target departments and
suggests implications that help meet this urgent desirable objective.

KEYWORDS English language teaching; education system; English department; Morocco

Introduction
One of the reasons that motivated this study is the need for increasing knowl-
edge of the status of English language education as the researcher’s core
major during his post-graduate academic journey in Morocco.1 Another
rationale involves the necessity of enriching and updating the current avail-
able literature with recent reforms regarding English language teaching
(ELT) alongside statistics and figures involving students’ enrolment and gradu-
ation rates in the English departments. This paper is meant to inform English
language educators about the academic status of English between the past
and present and introduce new interesting issues that researchers may
explore in future studies.
This two-section manuscript reviews issues regarding ELT in Morocco.
While the first section generally addresses factors contributing to the
growth of English in the education system in Morocco, the second one dis-
cusses ELT in the English department as an institution at university. The meth-
odology adopted in the manuscript is based on documentary analyses,

CONTACT Mohsine Jebbour [email protected] 2 Rue Abou Marouane Essaadi, Rabat

10100, Morocco
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 M. JEBBOUR

interviews, and personal observations as a student and teaching assistant of

English in different higher education institutions in Morocco.

Factors affecting the growth of English in education

The history and geography of Morocco have played a role in facilitating con-
tacts and relations with the U.S.A. and Great Britain. Establishing diplomatic
relations with these countries has been a key factor contributing to the intro-
duction of English and its culture since the eighteenth century in the country
(see Melouk 2006). English continued to spread in the nineteenth century
when Moroccans took English classes in Tangiers and Gibraltar before
heading to Britain for military and technical training (Benmansour 1996).
Thereafter the use of English increased during the Second World War when
military bases were established in Casablanca, Kenitra, and Tangiers, where
the target language was a means of communication between British and
American diplomats, spies, and soldiers (Ennaji 2005), thereby indicating
that the beginning of English is not young in Morocco.
Policy-makers’ awareness of the limited role of French to communicate at
the international level is another considerable factor explaining the spread of
English in education. The early grounded political relations with English-
speaking countries, as observed in signing the Moroccan-American Cultural
and Binational Commission agreements and ratifying the Moroccan-British
Cultural convention between the late 1960s and early 1980s, led to various
cultural exchanges, visits by educational experts and professors, and impor-
tantly recruitment of native English teachers (Sadiqi 1991). For instance, the
arrival of British and Peace Corps volunteers in Morocco to teach English in
the mid-sixties played an important role in shaping the ELT tradition by intro-
ducing Anglo-Saxon materials, such as Let’s Learn English and First Things First
and the target culture within the education system (Melouk 2006).
The foundation of private English centres in Morocco has also paved the
way to English to make its way to the realm of education. Since its official
inclusion in secondary education during the protectorate era2, a number of
foreign private institutions, like the American Language Centre, the British
Council, AMIDEAST (Buckner 2011; Sadiqi 1991), and American schools
throughout the country (in Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier, Marrakesh, etc.) have
given an added value to learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Along-
side international institutions, newly established Moroccan English centres,
such as English Highway in Meknes and Bridges in Rabat have attracted lear-
ners of all ages to enrol in either institution to learn and improve their
language skills. Additionally, Moroccan private schools have started encoura-
ging English language learning from the first grade level of primary education.
Ever since the establishment of Moroccan Universities with the North-
American curriculum, English has rapidly started advancing as a prestigious
 THE JOURNAL OF NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES 3

language within education. Several students show interest to apply to such

universities to continue their academic studies (see Ennaji 2005). For instance,
Al Akhawayn University, established by a royal decree in Ifrane in 1993, is a
public, not-for-profit Moroccan institution, where English is the language of
instruction (Ouakrime 2003). Given the highly American orientation of its edu-
cation system, students have optimal opportunities ‘to interact daily with
native English speakers in dorms and on campus’ (Buckner 2011, 233). Univer-
siapolis, which was established in Agadir in 1998, is another private higher
education institution implanting the Canadian-based curriculum and
offering English courses in different fields, including tourism, business, admin-
istration, and engineering. The institution has recently got accreditation from
the Ministry of Higher Education (SECES 2018).
The Moroccan Association of Teachers of English (MATE), created in 1979–
1980, is a non-profit and non-governmental organisation that has further
increased the status of EFL learning in educational settings. MATE gets con-
tinuous support from the Ministry of National Education to organise national
and regional conferences in different cities throughout the country, where
inspectors of English, high school and university teachers of English, and inter-
national scholars share new ideas about English language education, and
hence produce new language materials in the target language (Melouk
2006; Sadiqi 1991). Thanks to the quality of its conferences, the 6th MATE
national conference was awarded the royal patronage in 1989 (Ouakrime
1989, 2).
As a final note, the Moroccan American Commission for Cultural and Edu-
cational Exchange (MACECE) has increased the value of English language
learning among Moroccan university students through different exchange
programmes, including Fulbright study grant and joint-supervision pro-
gramme since 1952. As mentioned in its website, MACECE offers opportunities
to American Fulbright scholars to pay academic visits to Morocco as lecturers,
doctoral students, and researchers, while sending graduate Moroccan stu-
dents with different majors alongside secondary school and university tea-
chers of English to American educational institutions to continue further
studies, conduct research, and/or enhance teaching and leadership skills.
Overall, MACECE has encouraged Moroccan students, particularly from the
English department to continue studying English to apply for scholarships
to go to the U.S.A.

ELT in the English department

Historical background
The creation of departments of English in Faculties of Arts and Humanities3
has added an invaluable contribution to the academic status of ELT in
4 M. JEBBOUR

Morocco. The first department of English was set up at the Faculty of Letters of
Mohamed V University in Rabat in the academic year 1959–60. The second
department of English was founded at Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah Univer-
sity in Fez in 1972–73. In less than a decade, three new departments of English
were established in Casablanca, Marrakesh, and Oujda, specifically in 1980,
aiming at ‘decentralizing [higher education] and relieving the pressure of
student numbers from the already existing institutions’ (Ouakrime 1986, 21).
The English department in Rabat and/or Fez was a source of help and infor-
mation for the newly established departments to design their syllabi before
creating their own teaching programmes (Ouakrime 1986). Now, fourteen
departments of English have been established in Moroccan higher education
institutions. Table 1 shows the existing English departments and their year of
creation.
It is essential to note that the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) was one of
the teacher training institutions whose own department of English was in
charge of preparing Moroccan secondary teachers of English in the past
(see Dahbi 2003; Melouk 2006; Ouakrime 1986, for more information). An
important consequence of the reform in 2011 resulted in directly attaching
the ENS to higher education. The current academic year, 2019–2020 has wit-
nessed the creation of an English studies stream at the ENS in Rabat and
Meknes. This new stream has been established with the purpose to offer a
three-year bachelor’s degree in the secondary education major to new bacca-
laureate holders. Given its adoption of a limited access policy, the ENS in
Meknes has accepted 80 new applicants while the Rabat one has accepted 40
applicants during the current academic year. The English studies stream has
more or less the same subjects found in other departments of English,
especially during the first year, thus indicating that new departments of
English are likely to be reestablished in the coming years outside Faculties
of Humanities.

Table 1. English Departments at Moroccan Universities.

English Departments Year of Foundation
Rabat 1959–60
Fez Dhar El Mahraz 1972–73
Casablanca Ain Chok 1980–81
Marrakesh 1980–81
Oujda 1980–81
Meknes 1984–85
Casablanca Ben M’sik 1984–85
Tetouan 1985–86
El Jadida 1986–87
Agadir 1986–87
Mohammedia 1986–87
Kenitra 1986–87
Beni Mellal 1987–88
Fez Sais 1992–93
Note. Adopted from Dahbi (2003, 15).
 THE JOURNAL OF NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES 5

Mission
With the introduction of the ‘Moroccanization’ reform in the 1960s and early
1970s, higher education in general, and the English department in particular
had the mission of preparing Moroccan teachers of English to replace foreign
expatriates to fulfil the national needs of society (Ouakrime 1986). The year
1989 witnessed the presence of only two foreign teachers compared to 28
Moroccan teachers in the Fez Dhar EL Mahraz English department (Sadiqi
1991). After achieving this mission, like other academic branches in Faculties
of Arts and Humanities, the English department has become responsible for
absorbing the large numbers of high school graduates, preparing students
for either unemployment or second rate jobs (Ouakrime 2003).
Past research reported that the majority of Moroccan EFL students learn
English for instrumental reasons, mainly to integrate in public sector teaching
positions4 after obtaining a three-year degree, license, in English language and
literature (Buckner 2011; Dahbi 2003; Ennaji 2005; Sadiqi 1991). Importantly,
the Strategic Vision of Reform 2015–2030 considers introducing English in
the fourth grade of primary school starting from 2025 (CSEFRS 2015). Based
on these two factors, the future mission of the English department needs
intentionally focus on making students familiar with the EFL pedagogy
during their academic journey. A successful completion of this mission
necessitates redesigning a new curriculum that includes subject matters,
like language teaching methodology, educational psychology, lesson plan-
ning, and best practices in the study programme. The adoption of such a cur-
riculum is a step forward to responding to the needs of an important number
of applicants, ensuring a match between students’ academic journey and their
desirable future career, and guaranteeing an optimal implementation of the
current reform.

Contributions
The European and North American faculties’ acknowledgment that the Mor-
occan English department offers good quality teaching and produces
effective teaching programmes (see Dahbi 2003; Ennaji 2005) is not surprising
in light of the presence of a number of Moroccan teaching staff who deploys
continuous efforts to publish high-quality research, encourage the organis-
ation of conferences, and develop new English programmes and courses to
meet the recent changes occurring in ELT.
For example, the emeritus Professor Mohamed Ouakrime, a founder of the
Fez Dhar EL Mahraz English Department, is a leading figure whose role as a
teacher, a model, a mentor, a supervisor, and a researcher for four decades
has been a key in laying the foundations of the ELT tradition in the Moroccan
education system (Zaki 2016). His studies (Ouakrime 2017, 2000, 1986) have
6 M. JEBBOUR

provided a sound basis for establishing new venues of research regarding

English language education not only at the national level, but in the Arab
world as well. Alongside his studies, the work of former and
current university teachers, namely Fatima Sadiqi, Moha Ennaji, Mohammed
Melouk, Mohamed Dahbi, Hassan Abouabdelkader, and Abdelmajid Bouziane
has further enriched the literature on ELT in the education system in Morocco
(see Abouabdelkader and Bouziane 2016; Dahbi 2003; Ennaji 2005; Melouk
2006; Sadiqi 1991).
Teaching staff also encourages their students to organise academic events to
contribute their ideas to the English departments. Several study days and min-
conferences are frequently organised by graduate and post-graduate students
of English to discuss issues related to their fields of study in their home insti-
tutions A good example is the annual study days organised by second year stu-
dents of ‘Applied Language Studies and Research in Higher Education’ (ALSRHE)
Master programme at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Fez Dhar El Mahraz,
where participants have an optimal opportunity to share findings from their
Master theses, while engaging in interesting and beneficial discussions with pro-
fessors, classmates, and other attendees whose feedback makes departments of
English a rich source of information to enhance English language programmes.
Faculty members’ willingness to improve ELT in higher education is further
reflected in the development of new programmes to attract university students
from outside the department of English to learn the target language. For
instance, Mohammed Moubtassime, a Professor of English language and lin-
guistics, has launched and coordinated English for All5 at the Faculty of Arts
and Humanities in Fez since the academic year 2014–15. Students who enrol
in the programme benefit from free English language courses, which are run
by doctoral students6 majoring in English language and literature in the
same institution. The teaching assistants adopt or develop classroom activities
with the aim to help both undergraduate and graduate students learn the
basics of English for two hours a week. In undergraduate classes, teachers
extensively focus on teaching reading, grammar, and vocabulary, which gradu-
ate students have a chance to foster alongside the speaking ability. After a suc-
cessful completion of the course, students are awarded a certificate of
completion from the Fez Dhar El Mahraz department of English.
Given their commitment to enhance students’ academic learning experi-
ence, groups of enthusiastic teachers have developed new courses to enrich
the ELT curriculum within the Moroccan English departments. Unlike the
past when students had to choose either the literature or linguistics
major (see Dahbi 2003), now different disciplines, including applied language
studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and communication studies have
enriched the English departments, attracting hundreds of students to choose
English as their major. Table 2 confirms this fact and shows the number of
new applicants who annually enrol in the English departments in Morocco.
 THE JOURNAL OF NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES 7

Table 2. The Number of New Enrolees in the Moroccan English Departments (first year).
2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17
Rabat 513 452 490 376
Fez Dhar El Mahraz 360 549 628 1,302
Casablanca Ain Chok 460 339 548 840
Marrakesh 633 1,116 1,329 973
Oujda 626 827 1,023 854
Meknes 1,342 1,017 1,200 741
Casablanca Ben M’sik 227 300 268 297
Tetouan 321 348 645 715
El Jadida 249 272 526 354
Agadir 1,367 1,854 1,691 1,754
Mohammedia 326 276 379 378
Kenitra 974 1,008 851 1,542
Beni Mellal 578 678 841 840
Fez Sais 565 620 674 -
Note. (SECES 2013–14, 36; 2014–15, 38; 2015–16, 42; 2016–17, 42).

The figures in Table 2 are impressive and convincing enough to provide

support to previous research reporting English as the most favourable and
important language (French being the second) among Moroccan students
(Buckner 2011; Ennaji 2005; Ouakrime 1986). Recent statistics also demon-
strate this fact, in that while the numbers of students in the English depart-
ments increase, the numbers of students in the French departments
gradually decrease (see Table 3). The Arabization reform7 is one implicit
reason explaining students’ interest in English, as ‘French no longer retains
widespread prominence for governmental, educational, and conversational
purposes’ (Sadiqi 1991, 111). Given French is the language of the coloniser
is another reason why Moroccan students have expressed positive attitudes
toward English and its culture (Buckner 2011; Ennaji 2005; Sadiqi 1991). The
students’ perceptions that English helps in achieving socio-economic goals
is the other reason that has made of the target language a more desirable
major among new high school graduates (Ouakrime 2016).

Challenges
While the figures in Table 2 and Table 3 indicate the growing interest in
English language learning, the attainment of positive student learning

Table 3. The Overall Numbers and Percentages of Undergraduate Students in the

Moroccan English and French Departments.
2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17
English
Number 26,823 30,629 36,378 37,411
Percentage 14.18 18.76 2.83
French
Number 19,891 22,191 23,148 22,695
Percentage 11.56 4.31 −1.95
Note. SECES (2013–14, 73; 2014–15, 77; 2015–16, 83; 2016–17, 85).
8 M. JEBBOUR

outcomes in the English departments, especially in those with no selective

requirements8 is hard to achieve in the presence of the following challenges:

Larger class sizes

The first challenge pertains to larger class sizes within the target depart-
ments. For instance, the Fez Dhar El Mahraz and Fez Sais English depart-
ments had 2,222 and 1,857 full-time undergraduate students (male and
female) respectively during the academic year 2016–17 (SECES 2016–17,
87, 88). Specifically, first year classes usually have more than a hundred stu-
dents (Jebbour and Mouaid forthcoming). This number negatively affects
the effectiveness of ELT programmes since a class over 35 students provides
very fewer participatory opportunities (Bughio 2013; Rocca 2010). Alar-
mingly, only one third (3,210) of third year students (9,589) within the Mor-
occan English departments obtained their bachelor’s degrees in the
academic year 2016 – that is, 33.47% (SECES 2015–16, 83, 217). Such a
fact explains the high rates of absenteeism, failure, and repeating, while
indicating that the English departments are packed with students whose
English language proficiency is very low.

Unfavourable student-teacher ratio

A related challenge involves the unfavourable student-teacher ratio within the
English departments. In the academic year 2016–17, there were 368 perma-
nent professors teaching English courses to 37,411 full-time enrolled under-
graduate students in the fourteen Moroccan English departments (SECES
2016–17, 85, 325) – that is, an average of 101:1. Given such a student-
teacher ratio affects instructors’ pedagogic practices (see Rind and Kadiwal
2016) suggests that teacher-centred methods are the solution to conduct
English language classes. Such situations provide poor chances
for establishing effective teacher-student relationships and creating beneficial
oral interaction. It should be noted that the current average of student-
teacher ratio is sometimes distorted by student attendance policy9 (for
further details, see Ouakrime 1986).

Slow and unequal recruitment policy

The third challenge relates to the slow and unequal recruitment policy
adopted by the Ministry of Higher Education. One the one hand, from
2013 through 2017, the number of permanent university professors rose
solely by 2.22 per cent compared to 39.47 per cent of increase among
full-time undergraduate students throughout the fourteen English depart-
ments in Morocco (SECES 2013–14, 73, 286; 2016–17, 85, 325). On the
other hand, the Ministry of Higher Education, as reported in its website,
launched 21 job openings in 2016 for people with a PhD in English
language and literature. While employees had the right to apply for all
 THE JOURNAL OF NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES 9

these jobs, unemployed PhD holders were entitled to apply for only 57% of
the vacancies.

The lack of a unified ELT syllabus

The fourth challenge concerns the lack of a unified ELT syllabus within the
Moroccan English departments because teachers have freedom ‘to make
what they think are appropriate decisions about course objectives and
content, and adopt the teaching strategies they perceive as relevant’ (Ouak-
rime 1986, 29). This fact is still valid up-to-date, in that the personal experi-
ence of working as a teaching assistant in the Fez Dhar El Mahraz English
department in 2016 required a high degree of self-dependence to develop
the syllabus and course breakdown of the subject I was teaching. As a
matter of fact, novice teachers’ inexperience in developing instructional
materials may lead to presenting contents beyond the actual level of stu-
dents and hence reducing their motivation during the learning process
(Fareh 2010). Importantly, the lack of a unified syllabus is very likely to
result in equipping students with different types of knowledge and skills
within the same major. When these students become classmates in sub-
sequent classes, most of them may fail to succeed in courses that build
on previous ones.

Failure to implement continuous assessment

The fifth challenge involves failure to implement continuous assessment10 to
evaluate EFL students’ knowledge and skills throughout their academic
journey. There is a total absence of administering quizzes and tests during
the teaching-learning process within most English departments, where any
initiative from teachers to assess student learning is rejected by many stu-
dents due to considering assessment an indirect way to check absenteeism,
which is an irrelevant criterion to judge the level of knowledge and skills of
those who appear only on the day of final examinations. Hence, the inability
to employ the continuous type of assessment makes English departments of a
summative nature. That is, learners are evaluated at the end of each semester
and when failed, they are required to repeat classes without being told why
they have failed or what they need to do to improve their performance
because universities do not normally allow students to have access to their
examination scripts (see Ouakrime 2003, 2000, 1986).

Implications
Following from the challenges outlined above, this paper draws a number of
implications for decision makers, administrators, and teachers whose willing-
ness to implement these suggestions may improve the ELT programmes
within the Moroccan English departments.
10 M. JEBBOUR

The Moroccan government’s urgent duty to launch large-scale job cre-

ations for unemployed PhD holders, rather than rely on the internal transfer
policy only to satisfy employees with a PhD and save money is the primary
step that would help minimise the 25.9 per cent of unemployment among
university graduates (HCP 2019), guarantee equal opportunities, and ensure
quality education.
The administrators’ and teachers’ responsibility for doubling efforts to raise
students’ awareness of the importance of taking the placement test would
function as a strategy to reorient new applicants to make a smooth transition
from high school to university by choosing a relevant major and have rela-
tively less crowded classes by selecting only those who deserve to follow
the English studies major.
The fact that many instructors enter the classroom with little or no previous
teaching experience in higher education, the development of teacher training
courses is a point of departure to equip pre-service instructors with a sufficient
degree of declarative and procedural knowledge of the EFL pedagogy, while
raising their awareness of the institution’s cultural norms and standards in
which they will teach.
A final implication is building a culture of close cooperation and communi-
cation between novice and senior instructors, especially those who teach the
same subjects. Such collaboration would result in designing unified learning
materials that may help students develop common knowledge and skills
and allow those coming from different groups to study together outside
the classroom. It is also beneficial to employ peer to peer observations as a
means to enhance instructors’ teaching performance in the English depart-
ments. The benefits of such an approach is manifest in providing a chance
to novice teachers to collect information about teaching and classroom pro-
cesses, receive feedback on their teaching, and develop self-awareness of
their own classroom practices (Richards and Farrell 2005).

Conclusion
English has constantly evolved since the eighteenth century and is going to
grow as a widely used language in Morocco, where different factors, specifically
the development of political and diplomatic relations with English-speaking
countries, the establishment of private foreign and local English centres and
universities with a North-American curriculum, and the work of MATE and
MACECE have facilitated the spread of EFL learning in the education system.
The establishment of the English department in Morocco since the late
1950s has also given an added value to English language education in acade-
mia. The adoption of a mission that prepares EFL students to become teachers
of English is a way to ensure a successful implementation of the Strategic
Vision of Reform 2015–2030 and respond to the academic and professional
 THE JOURNAL OF NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES 11

needs of an important number of applicants within the target departments,

where teaching staff has made efforts to improve ELT by publishing high-
quality research, encouraging the organisation of conferences, and develop-
ing new courses and programmes. These efforts may be one reason explain-
ing the remarkable national and international reputation of the English
departments, which have attracted hundreds of new high school graduates.
However, the existing challenges – larger class sizes, the unfavourable
student-teacher ratio, the adoption of slow and unequal recruitment policy,
the lack of a unified ELT syllabus, and the failure to implement continuous
assessment – tend to ngeatively affect the quality of EFL learning within
the Moroccan English departments.
Thus, all language and course content departments suffering from the
same limitations in the Arab world in general, and North Africa in particular
including Morocco may implement the measures suggested. To recap,
launching large-scale job creations for unemployed PhD-holders, conducting
the placement test among new applicants, designing teacher training courses
for pre-service instructors, and encouraging close collaboration between
faculty members alongside implementing peer classroom observations
would make English departments a model for other departments in higher
education. That is, a successful implementation of these measures would
help teachers and administrators to create an atmosphere that provides
support to students’ language learning experience and equips them with
the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviours to meet the realities of the
workplace and the challenges of globalisation. Only in such an environment
that the implementation of formative assessment may be possible, where
the aim is to improve learning and teaching and inform administrators to
suggest frequent reforms to achieve desirable educational outcomes (Ouak-
rime 2003).

Notes
1. Morocco is a multilingual country where the official languages, Arabic and Tama-
zight alongside French, English, and Spanish are used in many realms for
different purposes and functions (for more details, see Ennaji 2009).
2. The French Protectorate lasted from 1912 to 1956 in Morocco.
3. Faculties of Arts and Humanities offer open access to all holders of the Bacca-
laureate certificate issued no earlier than two years prior to the date of
application.
4. Before B.A. holders in English studies work as middle or high school teachers of
English in the public sector, they receive a one-year pedagogical training course
in ELT with a practical focus at Centre Régional des Métiers de l’ Education et de
la Formation (CRMEF).
5. Research is needed to evaluate the programme.
6. I conducted interviews with the teachers involved in the programme. The inter-
view focused on eliciting information regarding the objective of the English
12 M. JEBBOUR

course, the target students registering in the programme, and the benefits of the
programme.
7. The Arabization reform contributed to the development of a mixed bilingual
educational system (Arabic and French) at the Moroccan university.
8. This means that admission to some English departments is usually conditional
on having a minimum average of 14/20 in English in the Baccalaureate transcript
and/or passing written and/or oral examination.
9. In English departments that involve no selective requirements, student attend-
ance is not checked. Thus, students frequently miss classes and violate the
grouping arrangements made by the administration (for more details, see Ouak-
rime 1986).
10. The implementation of continuous assessment in higher education is empha-
sised by the National Education Charter since 1999. However, this aim is yet
to be achieved in the future.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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