Tamazight, or Amazighe language<\/strong>, refers to the Berber languages, spoken in North Africa<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In Algeria<\/strong>, the teaching of this language, though promoted since 1980<\/strong>, seems to be losing momentum. El Watan tries to grasp the causes of this decline<\/strong>, based on the yearly assessment conducted by national authorities and activists of the Tamazight cause.<\/p>\n \n <\/p><\/div>\n \n 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.<\/p>\n Another figure: in Bejaia, the largest city of Kabylie, statistics show that only one out of two pupils is still involved in this program.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u00e0 l\u2019amazighit\u00e9 (HCA, \u00ab Tamazight high authority \u00bb) and a national center for education and language.<\/p>\n Thus the regression of Tamazight teaching<\/strong>, according to many, could be due to the fact that it\u2019s optional<\/strong>. So as to be effective, the teaching of Tamazight should be compulsory and truly official.<\/p>\n Applying already-existing laws would also be a good start. As noted by M. Arkoub, member of the Tamazight teachers association: \u00ab 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. \u00bb A well-known song in many other countries where minority languages struggle to find their fit in education\u2026<\/p>\n Read <\/span>El Watan<\/em>‘s article<\/span><\/a> (in French)<\/p>\n![\"](\"http:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/tamazight1.jpg\" "\\"tamazight\\"")
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