Author's note: The broader research from which this article emerges has been funded by the Princeton Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa & Central Asia, the Princeton Center for Migration and Development, the J. F. Coustopoulos Foundation, and the A. G. Leventis Foundation. My sincere thanks go to Abdellah Hammoudi, Lawrence Rosen, Carol Greenhouse, and Carolyn Rouse for their close reading and advice. I am indebted to Shana Cohen, Wolfgang Kraus, Michael Willis, Kristin Pfeifer, Barbara Goetsch, Claire Nicholas, and Cortney Hughes for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this work presented in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Austria. I have truly benefited from the suggestions put forward by the four anonymous IJMES reviewers, and I am grateful for their advice. I warmly thank the IJMES editorial team Beth Baron and Sara Pursley for their patient editing.

¹ The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2007), 3Google Scholar.

² See Wizarat al-Tarbiya wa-l-Takwin, “Malaf Shamil li-Mashariʿ al-Barnamaj al-Istiʿajali 2009–2012,” al-Mamlaka al-Maghribiyya, http://portail.men.gov.ma/Prog_urgence_ar/default.aspx (accessed 10 September 2010).

³ After the World Bank report was made public, the Moroccan press openly deplored the “total failure of education in Morocco.” For example, see Brahim Mokhliss and Mohammed Zainabi, “La Faillite Totale de l'Enseignement au Maroc,” Le Reporter, 24 April 2008, 22–27.

⁴ Anthropological critiques of development discourse in the region have pointed out that such diagnostics is based on a specific designation of domains such as “education” or the “economy” as distinct and as devoid of historical and political context. See Mitchell, Timothy, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics and Modernity (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2002)Google Scholar; and Adely, Fida, “Educating Women for Development: The Arab Human Development Report 2005 and the Problem with Women's Choices,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 41 (2009): 105–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵ It is customary to label contemporary written Arabic as Modern Standard Arabic. However, I am reluctant to use this term here because, in Morocco, both Classical and Modern Arabic are interchangeably referred to al-ʿarabiyya al-fuṣḥā or al-ʿarabiyya. Therefore, I resort to the term fuṣḥā, a terminological choice that is more relevant to language use on the ground and also revealing of the ambiguity of Arabization as the modern transformation of Classical Arabic. For a detailed discussion of this issue, see Haeri, Niloofar, “Form and Ideology: Arabic Sociolinguistics and Beyond,” Annual Review of Anthropology 29 (2000): 61–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

⁶ One can notice an occasional surfacing of such issues in the newspaper al-Tajdid, mouthpiece of the moderate Islamic party Hizb al-ʿAdala wa-l-Tanmiyya. See Mohammed Belbashir, “Hiwarat: Taʿarib al-Taʿlim . . . Ajhada Thalath Marat Bal wa-Qublin Manqusan li-Takthir Khusumihi,” al-Tajdid, 25 January 2008, 3.

⁷ The present analysis draws upon extended ethnographic observations inside urban high schools. While I visited twenty high schools, I eventually focused on two. I followed the courses in the two main streams of concentration available to the students, sciences and humanities, and spent time with junior- and senior-year students as well as with teachers and inspectors. I also joined students outside the educational frame and traced the planning of their academic futures at home. This research was complemented by extended discussions with Moroccan academics and other scholars.

⁸ For in-depth explorations of these domains of educational disparity, see Wagner, Daniel A., Literacy, Culture and Development: Becoming Literate in Morocco (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993)Google Scholar; Agnaou, Fatima, Gender, Literacy and Empowerment in Morocco (New York: Routledge, 2004)Google Scholar; and Hoffman, Katherine E., We Share Walls: Language, Land and Gender in Berber Morocco (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008)Google Scholar.

⁹ While I draw on a variety of accounts, I engage more closely with the works of Ahmed Zouggari, “Le Système d'Enseignement sous le Protectorat Français et Espagnol,” in Systèmes Educatifs, Savoir, Technologies et Innovation: 50 ans de Développement Humain & Perspectives 2025, http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/index.asp (accessed 15 March 2012); Vermeren, Pierre, École, Élite, Pouvoir au Maroc et en Tunisie au 20ème siècle (Rabat, Morocco: Alizés, 2002)Google Scholar; Segalla, Spencer, The Moroccan Soul: French Education, Colonial Ethnology, and Muslim Resistance, 1912–1956 (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 2009)Google Scholar; and Eickelman, Dale, “The Art of Memory: Islamic Education and Its Social Reproduction,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 20 (1978): 485–516CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ See Moatassime, Ahmed, Arabisation et Langue Française au Maghreb (Paris: I.E.D.E.S Presses Universitaires de France, 1992)Google Scholar; and Chami, Mussa, L'Enseignement du Français au Maroc (Casablanca: al-Najah al-Jadida, 1987)Google Scholar.

¹¹ I discuss such explanations in the works of Bourdieu, Pierre, Language and Symbolic Power, ed. Thompson, John B., trans. Raymond, Gino and Adamson, Mathew (Cambridge: Polity, 1991)Google Scholar; Bourdieu, Pierre and Passeron, Jean-Claude, Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, trans. Nice, Richard (London: Sage, 1990)Google Scholar; and Cohen, Shana, Searching for a Different Future: The Development of a Global Middle Class in Morocco (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹² Both French and Arabic terminology exists for all educational levels, disciplinary tracks, and courses. In the urban schools where I conducted fieldwork, the two terms were used interchangeably.

¹³ All translations from French, fuṣḥā, or dārija are mine.

¹⁴ While Arabization imposed instruction in fuṣḥā, the Arabic register used in informal everyday speech is dārija. Moreover, a considerable part of the population is of Amazigh (Berber) origin; their vernacular language, with its regional variations (roughly divided into tarifit, tamazight, and tashelḥit), has undergone a process of standardization and official promotion. Since 2006, standardized Tamazight has been introduced into a number of primary schools in the country, not as language of instruction but as a subject. On the incorporation of Tamazight in public education, see Errihani, Mohammed, “Language Policy in Morocco: Problems and Prospects of Teaching Tamazight,” Journal of North African Studies 11 (2006): 143–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ On the history of Arabization policies in the Maghrib, see Grandguillaume, Gilbert, Arabisation and Politique Linguistique au Maghreb (Paris: Editions GP Maisonneuve et Larose, 1983)Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Zouggari, “Le Système d'Enseignement”; Vermeren, École, Élite, Pouvoir; and Segalla, The Moroccan Soul.

¹⁷ Eickelman, “The Art of Memory.”

¹⁸ Waterbury, John, Commander of the Faithful: The Moroccan Political Elite—A Study in Segmented Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), 82–84Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Moatassime, Arabisation et Langue Française au Maghreb, 23.

²⁰ Zouggari, “Le Système d'Enseignement.”

²¹ Lyautey, quoted in Hoisington, William A., Lyautey and the French Conquest of Morocco (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995)Google Scholar. This policy is in considerable contrast with Jules Ferry's educational vision for Algeria; see Colonna, Fanny, Instituteurs Algériens 1883–1939 (Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1975), 41Google Scholar.

²² Franco-Muslim education was administered by the Service de l'Enseignement des Indigènes and the royal seat of power (makhzan). See Scham, Alan, Lyautey in Morocco: Protectorate Administration 1912–1925 (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1970), 146–53Google Scholar.

²³ Benhlal, Mohammed, Le collège d'Azrou: une Élite Berbère Civile et Militaire au Maroc (Paris: Editions Karthala et IREMAN, 2005)Google Scholar.

²⁴ The institution of the free school was an alternative to Protectorate schooling and was largely private. The free schools of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria varied considerably in their orientation and curriculum. See Damis, John J., The Free-School Movement in Morocco, 1919–1970 (Medford, Mass.: Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1970)Google Scholar; idem, “The Free-School Phenomenon: The Cases of Tunisia and Algeria,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 5 (1974): 434–49.

²⁵ Zouggari, “Le Système d'Enseignement.”

²⁶ Vermeren, École, Élite, Pouvoir.

²⁷ See Eickelman, “The Art of Memory.”

²⁸ See Berque, Jacques, French North Africa: The Maghrib between Two World Wars, trans. Stewart, Jean (New York: Praeger, 1967)Google Scholar.

²⁹ By the term salafiyya, I refer to the religious reformist movement of Morocco as it developed around the turn of the 20th century. The movement sought to eradicate other expressions of faith, such as Sufism, and to reform religion so that it could better withstand a Western challenge. For an analysis of the Moroccan salafī movement, see Geertz, Clifford, Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press 1968)Google Scholar; and Burke, Edmund, “Pan-Islam and Resistance to French Colonial Penetration, 1900–1912,” Journal of African History 13 (1972): 97–118CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁰ Segalla, The Moroccan Soul.

³¹ See Hermassi, Ahmed, “The Political and the Religious in the Modern History of the Maghreb,” in Islamism and Secularism in North Africa, ed. Ruedy, John (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1994)Google Scholar.

³² A similar move in Egypt is discussed in Haeri, Sacred Language, Ordinary People, 134.

³³ Vermeren, École, Élite, Pouvoir, 289–92.

³⁴ Ibid., 281.

³⁵ While the 1999 Charte de l'Education et de Formation alluded to the integration of Arabic in scientific disciplines at the university level, to this day there has been no change in the institutional position of French in this field. Article 112, Charte Nationale de l'Education et de Formation, 1999, Royaume du Maroc, http://www.takween.com/charte.html (accessed 20 October 2011). I thank one of my anonymous reviewers for directing me to the contradictions in the Charte.

³⁶ Vermeren, École, Élite, Pouvoir, 388. The term ingénieur, as used in Morocco, does not solely refer to the profession of the engineer but to any applied scientist who has graduated from the Grandes Écoles Professionnelles or the Instituts des Hautes Études.

³⁷ Mokhlis and Zainabi, “La Faillite Totale.”

³⁸ International Bank, The Road Not Traveled, 4.

³⁹ Sefrioui, Ahmed, La Boîte à Merveilles (Rabat: Lamalif, 1954)Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ The scientific stream is divided into the following tracks: sciences-mathématiques/al-ʿulūm al-riāḍiyya (mathematics), economie et gestion/al-ʿulūm al-iqtiṣādiyya wa-l-tadbīr (economics and management), technologie/al-ʿulūm wa-l-tiknūlūjiyāt al-kahrubāʾiyya (electronics), and mechanique/al-ʿulūm wa-l-tiknūlūjiyāt al-mikanikiyya (mechanics). See Charte Nationale de l'Education et de Formation, 1999, http://www.takween.com/charte.html (accessed 20 October 2011).

⁴¹ During the academic year 2006/2007, the course weighting for French for the scientific branch was six. During the year 2007/2008, the course weighting dropped to four, while Arabic remained at two. Wizarat al-Tarbiya wa-l-Takwin, “Mudhakira Raqm 43, Tanzim al-Dirasa bi-l-Taʿlim al-Thanawi 2006–2007,” al-Mamlaka al-Maghribiyya. I am grateful to the central Regional Academy of the Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaïr for providing me with this report.

⁴² See al-Fehri, Abdelkader al-Fassi, Azmat al-Lugha al-ʿArabiyya fi al-Maghrib bayna Ikhtilalat al-Taʿadudiwa wa-Taʿathurat al-Tarjama (Casablanca: Manshurat Zawiya, 2005)Google Scholar.

⁴³ See Bentahila, Abdelali, Language Attitudes among Arabic–French Bilinguals in Morocco (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1983)Google Scholar; and Errihani, Mohammed, “Language Attitudes and Language Use in Morocco: Effects of Attitudes on Berber Language Policy,” Journal of North African Studies 13 (2008): 411–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁴ Chami, L'Enseignement du Français au Maroc, 22.

⁴⁵ Errihani, “Language Attitudes and Language Use in Morocco,” 427.

⁴⁶ Vermeren, École, Élite, Pouvoir, 429.

⁴⁷ At the time of writing this article, the currency exchange rate between Moroccan dirham and the U.S. dollar was 1:8.19.

⁴⁸ A foreign textbook cost about 300 dhm, compared to a public school textbook ranging from 48 dhm to 56 dhm.

⁴⁹ For the financial arrangements of the msid, see Daniel Wagner, Literacy, Culture and Development, 42.

⁵⁰ Hymes, Dell, Ethnography, Linguistics and Narrative Inequality: Towards an Understanding of the Voice (London: Taylor & Francis, 1996), 52Google Scholar.

⁵¹ I am referring to Marx's famous suggestion: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” Padover, Saul K., ed. The Karl Marx Library 1 (New York: McGraw–Hill, 1972), 245Google Scholar.

⁵² Bourdieu and Passeron, Reproduction.

⁵³ Woolard, Kathryn A. and Schieffelin, Bambi B., “Language Ideology,” Annual Review of Anthropology 23 (1994): 58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁴ Moatassime, Arabisation et Langue Française, 29.

⁵⁵ Ibid., 82.

⁵⁶ Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 31.

⁵⁷ Ibid., 197. A similar view on teachers is presented by Althusser, Louis, Essays of Ideology (London: Verso, 1984)Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ For a detailed development of such criticism, see Hammoudi, Abdellah, “Phenomenology and Ethnography: On Kabyle Habitus in the Work of Pierre Bourdieu,” in Bourdieu in Algeria: Colonial Politics, Ethnographic Practices, Theoretical Developments, ed. Goodman, Jane E. and Silverstein, Paul A. (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), 199–254Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ The two works referenced by Hammoudi here are Bourdieu, Pierre, Sociologie de l'Algérie (Paris: Presses Universitaires France, 1958)Google Scholar; idem, The Algerians, trans. Alan C. M. Ross (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962).

⁶⁰ Bourdieu and Passeron, Reproduction.

⁶¹ Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 231.

⁶² Ibid., 250.

⁶³ Rosen, Larry, Varieties of Muslim Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 36CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a discussion on Egypt, see Starrett, Gregory, Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics and Religious Transformation in Egypt (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1997), 11Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Cohen, Searching for a Different Future.

⁶⁵ Ibid., 33.

⁶⁶ Ibid., 2.

⁶⁷ Ibid., 138.

⁶⁸ Bouderbala, Négib, “Les Classes Moyennes Comme Moteur de l'Ascenseur Social: l'Hypothèse des Classes Moyennes,” in Prospective Maroc 2030. Actes du Forum II: La Société Marocaine: Permanences, Changements et Enjeux pour l'Avenir (n.p.: Royaume du Maroc, Haut Commissariat au Plan, 2005)Google Scholar.

⁶⁹ Lukose, Ritty, “Empty Citizenship: Protesting Politics in an Era of Globalization,” Cultural Anthropology 20 (2005): 506–533CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁰ Ibid., 511.

⁷¹ Cohen, Searching for a Different Future, 4.

⁷² Tsing, Anna, “The Global Situation,” Cultural Anthropology 15 (2000): 328CrossRefGoogle Scholar.