A quarter of a century after the Ajdir speech, which marked a founding moment in the promotion of the Amazigh language and culture, one central question needs asking: where does the project of teaching the Amazigh language in Moroccan schools actually stand? What has really been achieved since its official recognition? And what continues to hold back its rollout, both horizontally and vertically?
Over the past few decades, the Amazigh language has moved from being a demand for inclusion in the education system to becoming an official state language, backed by clear constitutional, legislative and regulatory references — chief among them Article 5 of the Constitution, Organic Law No. 26-16 and Framework Law No. 51-17, alongside school curricula, ministerial circulars, and teaching and digital resources.
But the question today is no longer only about the Amazigh language’s place in legal texts: it is about the ability to turn that recognition into effective practice in schools and classrooms.
Real gains, but still a long way to go
On the human resources front, the number of teachers specialised in the Amazigh language now stands at roughly 4,180 nationwide. The trajectory of budgeted posts dedicated to the subject shows steady growth: from 80 posts in 2013 to 1,000 in 2026, reflecting rising institutional commitment to training specialised staff.
The inspectorate has also seen notable change: a specialisation track in the Amazigh language was added for the first time, in 2023, to the inspector-training programme in Rabat. A first cohort of twelve specialised inspectors graduated in 2025, while a new cohort, currently in training, is due to graduate for the 2026-2027 school year.
On the training side, the number of trainers at regional centres for education and training professions rose from six in 2013 to 34 in the 2025-2026 school year; thirty more trainers are set to join these centres next year through a dedicated competitive exam, bringing the total to 64 specialised trainers across all regional centres, headquarters and branches combined.
Amazigh language specialisation courses at these centres have likewise expanded, growing from three centres in 2013 to seventeen in 2026: Agadir, Marrakech, Meknes, Nador, Tangier, Al Hoceima, Casablanca, Taza, Sefrou, Benslimane, El Jadida, Beni Mellal, Errachidia, Tiznit, Khemisset, Guelmim and Dakhla.
These figures confirm that the effort to teach the Amazigh language has moved past its founding phase and has, in recent years, built up substantial institutional gains. Those gains alone, however, do not guarantee an effective rollout on the ground.
Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima as a case study
Field data from the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region point to persistent, marked disparities between provincial directorates: according to figures gathered in 2025 by the region’s Association of Amazigh Language Teachers, the rollout rate there does not exceed 26.80%.
That figure raises a fundamental question: can current human resources genuinely keep pace with rising demand, given that the number of specialised teachers recruited each year still falls well short of what would be needed to cover every school?
With close to four million primary school pupils in Morocco, 4,180 specialised teachers cannot, under the current teaching and staffing model, guarantee an effective rollout of the subject. The same holds for inspection and training: 64 trainers spread across 17 regional centres remain a limited number given national needs, as do the 24 inspectors, who cannot alone handle the training, supervision and follow-up of teachers spread across 84 provincial directorates.
This exposes one of the central paradoxes in the effort to teach the Amazigh language: clear progress in building the institutional framework, but a pace of on-the-ground rollout that still falls short of what the language’s official status demands.
From legal recognition to linguistic equity
The problem today is no longer a lack of legal and regulatory references, but their implementation, monitoring, and the evaluation of their impact within schools.
The goal of rolling out teaching of the Amazigh language is not simply to raise the number of schools or classes involved, but to guarantee every pupil the right to learn the Amazigh language, wherever they are and whichever school they attend, with continuity of learning across levels and cycles, in both public and private education.
The success of this national effort should therefore not be measured only by the number of circulars, posts or centres created, but by what actually reaches the pupil in the classroom, and by the quality of the language learning on offer. That requires moving beyond year-by-year management toward clear multi-year planning, backed by numerical targets and measurable indicators.
Seven priorities to speed up the rollout
First priority — Accelerate the pace of rollout: draw up annual national and regional plans setting the number of target schools, prioritising provincial directorates with the lowest rates.
Second priority — Strengthen human resources: whether teachers, inspectors or trainers, in line with actual needs.
Third priority — Broaden the scope of teaching the Amazigh language: extend it to preschool, middle school and high school, while strengthening its presence in higher education, vocational training, traditional education and foreign mission schools.
Fourth priority — Ensure equity: guarantee fairness between public and private education by enforcing the provisions governing the teaching of the Amazigh language and monitoring schools’ compliance with them.
Fifth priority — Raise the quality of learning: by providing textbooks and teaching materials, developing digital resources, improving the class time allotted to the subject so it is on par with other taught languages, and reducing the number of groups assigned to each specialised teacher so they can work under adequate conditions.
Sixth priority — Training and support: invest in both initial and ongoing training, and involve universities, the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture and specialised staff in developing teaching practices and methods.
Seventh priority — Monitoring and evaluation: adopt precise annual indicators measuring the rollout rate, the number of schools and pupils benefiting, the number of teachers, the coverage rate per teacher, and the share benefiting from ongoing training, involving specialised stakeholders and professional associations in the monitoring and evaluation process.
The real challenge is implementation
The state has undeniably taken important steps in recognising the Amazigh language and integrating it into the education system, and efforts by various stakeholders, including the regional academies of education and training, have contributed to a real accumulation of gains.
But field data confirm that the shift from recognition to full rollout is not yet complete.
Twenty-five years after the Ajdir speech and twenty-three years after the teaching of the Amazigh language began, the challenge is no longer producing more legal texts, but ensuring their effective application, linking stated goals to clear indicators, and holding programmes accountable for their results on the ground.
Teaching the Amazigh language is no longer a narrow educational undertaking: it has become a national, societal and civilisational issue, a linguistic and cultural right for learners. The next phase therefore requires stronger institutional will, sufficient human resources, more rigorous planning and stricter monitoring, so that the constitutional recognition of the Amazigh language becomes a tangible reality in every school and every classroom.
Because the true measure of success for this effort is not what the texts say, but what the child actually learns in school.
By Abdelaziz Touzani
Arabic version | French version
