As opposed to the plans set up by the Arabic language advocates, the French language is gaining more space in public schools. The latest decision taken by the Minister of National Education, Mohamed Hassad to start teaching French beginning from first grade has angered Fouad Abou Ali, president of the National Arabic Language Collective. He denounced the project imposed by the ministry calling it a form of «ancient and new colonization». A war between two camps, namely pro-Arabic and pro-French has just started. The decision taken by the Minister of National Education to teach French from the first grade in public schools starting from the upcoming school year has revived the concerns of the other camp. An announcement that was delivered live on national TV by Mohamed Hassad during the weekly oral question session held in the House of Representatives on Tuesday 13th of June. Previously, the learning of French language was starting from the third year of elementary school. Awaiting a reaction from the PJD islamists, Fouad Abou Ali, the president of the National Arabic Language Collective, has requested a mobilization to denounce the measure. The president of the National Arabic Language Collective denounces the decision For this supporter of arabization, Hassad's decision constitutes «a real threat to official languages» and «by imposing on Moroccans the language of the old-new colonization in violation of all Moroccan constitutional consensus and visions strategic aspects of the Higher Council of Education», he wrote on his Facebook page. «With this decision, Hassad thinks he solves the problems» of the public school ? he wonders. Abou Ali believes that French is not the appropriate solution to the crisis in the sector, assuring that the language of Molière «loses every day its scientific aura». The head of the Collective affirms, on the other hand, that the solution advocated by Hassad «will aggravate the linguistic and teaching methodologies problems» and «will lead to a national catastrophe». Despite the virulence of the reaction of Fouad Abou Ali, the announcement made by the minister goes hand in hand with the strategy 2015-2030 elaborated by his predecessor and adopted at the Council of Ministers on the 6th of February 2016 in Laayoune. For the record twenty-four hours later, Rachid Belmokhtar declared on 2M that the teaching of French in the public school will begin in the first year of primary school unlike what was applied in the past. Moreover, Mohamed Hassad has not yet announced if English will be integrated to the public school programs from the fourth year of primary school as Belmokhtar promised earlier.
