Tamazight, or Amazighe language, refers to the Berber languages, spoken in North Africa.

In Algeria, the teaching of this language, though promoted since 1980, seems to be losing momentum. El Watan tries to grasp the causes of this decline, based on the yearly assessment conducted by national authorities and activists of the Tamazight cause.

Reports are, in fact, alarming: first, out of the 16 wilayahs (departments, or regions) selected to be teaching the language, only 9 have kept teaching it.

Another figure: in Bejaia, the largest city of Kabylie, statistics show that only one out of two pupils is still involved in this program.

Problems regarding the teaching methods and socio-professional issues also appear here and there: in the Tamazight-speaking wilayah of Tizi-Ouzou, for instance, primary school teachers have to run classes in 3 to 4 different villages, spending a lot of their time commuting.

The Berber wars had generated some degree of improvement in the course of the past decades: Tamazight became a national language, it has its own public television channel, four cultural festival were created, and three departments of Tamazight language and culture were established as well as two institutions: the Haut commissariat à l’amazighité (HCA, « Tamazight high authority ») and a national center for education and language.

Thus the regression of Tamazight teaching, according to many, could be due to the fact that it’s optional. So as to be effective, the teaching of Tamazight should be compulsory and truly official.

Applying already-existing laws would also be a good start. As noted by M. Arkoub, member of the Tamazight teachers association: « we do have official guidelines for the education system as well as a circular for the teaching of Tamazight, but unfortunately these laws are trampled on by heads of a number of schools. » A well-known song in many other countries where minority languages struggle to find their fit in education…

Read El Watan‘s article (in French)