My First Day of School

I didn't have anything to do today, so I decided to check out the elementary school. My host brother, Zuhir was assigned to accompany me. The school week in Morocco runs Monday through Saturday and students only go for half the day. This is due to a shortage of teachers and classrooms. Somehow, all of the kids in my family are on the same schedule. Every other day they go mornings and the other days they attend in the afternoons. Saturdays are afternoon days, so Zuhir was giving up his free morning to escort me to school.

We stopped at the director's office first; his duties are administrative and disciplinary in nature, similar to a principal. I dove in with my introduction in the best Tamazight I could muster and he looked at me like I was an alien dropped into his office and speaking gibberish! He asked me to speak French and I explained that I don't speak French, so we struggled along in Tamazight. After exhausting my “who, what, where, why” sentences about myself, he asked me what I wanted and I told him I wanted to know more about the school – how many students, their ages, the teachers, resources available to the students and teachers, etc. I thought I had explained myself well, but he gave me with another quizzical look and asked if I wanted to see some kids. I said “Sure!” and he escorted me to a classroom.

The school is built in an almost park-like setting with each classroom its own little building, surrounding an open field where the kids take their recess. The classroom we went to was the closest to the Director's office, which is also its own building. When the director entered the classroom, the entire class stood up and greeted him in unison. He spoke to the teacher and they directed Zuhir and I to a desk a the back of the room. We observed for a while – the students were taking turns going to the front of the room to recite something. The teacher joined us in the back of the room and was explaining some of the details of the school to me. He spoke quite a bit of English which helped facilitate this process.

Education in Morocco is free, but students must purchase their books each year. These are more like workbooks – soft cover books that include both reading material and exercises. Thus, they are used only once and not recycled as text books in the States are. On average, they cost 180Dh each year, which can be prohibitive for families with many children or with limited incomes. The books are written and distributed by the Ministry of Education and all schools follow a national curriculum that includes:

Arabic
French
Writing
Islamic Education
Math
Science
History
Geography
Drawing
Sports

Although students speak Tamazight at home, educational institutions are conducted in Arabic. Students learn Arabic and French beginning in elementary school and in high school, they begin to learn English! Its no wonder everyone here assumes I speak French and are stunned when I tell them that students in America are only required to learn English. Many people assume that all foreigners speak French.

I was somewhat surprised by how little was accomplished in the classrooms I observed. The first class was a writing class, but they spent a significant amount of time with the recitation and then colored a picture in one of their books. A math class consisted of the teacher writing a series of problems on the board and then giving the students more than enough time to complete them. While correcting them, he didn't take time to explain the answers or help any of the students who had questions. One class ended quite early and the teacher played music and the kids sang along for the remainder of the period. In addition, all of the students I knew, either from playing with them on my street or meeting at their homes, spent more time waving to me and making sure I saw them participating or helping the teacher than paying attention in class. I must make a small disclaimer that some of the teachers may have altered their plans because I was present and these observations were made on one day; things may be different when I am not around.

Throughout the morning, Zuhir would give me a look that said, “Let's go!” I tried to tell him that he could go home and I would stay at school, but he wasn't leaving without me. Once the afternoon classes started, he left to attend class, but only after the director assured Zuhir that he would make sure I got home OK.

I ate lunch with the Director and one of the teachers at the Director's home. It is adjacent to the school and I wonder if housing is provided by the Ministry of Education. Teachers and Directors are assigned to schools somewhat arbitrarily it seems. We talked a bit about the importance of education – both heartily agreed that education is the first step towards a brighter future for Morocco. They stressed the importance of an appropriate and correct Islamic education. This teacher in particular, talked about the extremist views in Islam and how those are not the mainstream or correct beliefs. I felt like he was trying to reassure me about his religion and beliefs and the future of Morocco.

I also learned that a Japanese development organization donated a computer lab to the school. This prompted me to ask some questions of my fellow volunteers and I learned that Japan outspends every other country (including the U.S.), both in percentage of GDP and gross investment, on international development. I received a history lesson, too – somehow my history classes never really made it to modern history i.e. WW2, so I recently learned that the U.S. essentially wrote Japan's constitution and wrote it in such a way as to exclude the possibility of maintaining a standing military. Thus, Japan has plenty of money to spend on peaceful pursuits such as development.