Islamic Education in Morocco

Helen N. Boyle and Abdenour Boukamhi

Abstract
Islamic education in Morocco has changed dramatically over even the last
50 years. It has also flourished and grown even as public schooling has become
increasingly available and has seen dramatic increases in enrolment. Traditional
Islamic schools – Qur’ānic kuttābs – in Morocco have changed and repositioned
themselves in the education sector, introducing innovations to make these schools
more appealing to parents, who seek to imbue their children with traditional
values and culture, at the same time ensuring they get a modern education that
will lead to economic advancement and success as adults. This chapter explores
the pre-university Islamic education sector in Morocco, looking at some of the
major developments in school curricula, staffing, organization, and purpose.

Keywords
Morocco • Kuttāb • Islamic education • Qur’ānic schools

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Moroccan Islamic Education in the Precolonial and Colonial Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A New Type of Moroccan School: The “Modern” Public School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Adaptation and Complementarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

H.N. Boyle (*)

Learning Systems Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
e-mail: hboyle@fsu.edu
A. Boukamhi
The Moroccan Northern Association for Educational and Economic Development, Chefchaouen,
Morocco

# Springer International Publishing AG 2017 1

H. Daun, R. Arjmand (eds.), Handbook of Islamic Education, International Handbooks
of Religion and Education 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53620-0_37-1
2 H.N. Boyle and A. Boukamhi

Complementarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the role of contemporary Islamic schools in Morocco, with
particular emphasis on Qur’ānic preschools, the most prevalent form of traditional
Islamic education. These schools usually focus on Qur’ānic memorization although,
increasingly, many of them add in some alphabetic learning and some basic arith-
metic. Data informing this chapter comes from the dataset collected in the course of
an ethnographic study on Qur’ānic schools in 1998 in Morocco, review of literature,
and interviews in 2013 with a small sample of Qur’ānic preschool teachers, parents,
and one fqih ( faqī h) or traditional Islamic school teacher in the town of
Chefchaouen. These latter interviews focused on the evolving mission and specific
practices within contemporary Moroccan Qur’ānic schools.

Moroccan Islamic Education in the Precolonial and Colonial

Periods

The philosophical underpinning of Islamic education, in Morocco and elsewhere, is

that knowledge comes from the development of the whole person: the physical,
intellectual, moral, and spiritual dimensions of the person. Thus, formal education in
Islam puts a great deal of emphasis on developing the essence of the human – i.e., the
soul (Bin Omar 1993). This is in contrast to more recent European and American
traditions where the intellect is often emphasized as the primary focus of formal
education. Education – the quest for knowledge – for Muslims necessarily includes
religious study; spiritual knowledge is as important as scientific, empirical knowl-
edge and indeed complements it (Ashraf 1985).
Prior to and during the period of French colonization (1912–1956), Moroccan
Islamic schools tended to be loosely organized from an administrative point of view,
usually supported and run by community members and, in the larger cities, by wealthy
patrons. In this sense, they were genuinely community institutions, responsive to
community needs and values without being highly centralized or overly bureaucratic
(Wagner 1983b). Institutionally, the types of schools that existed included kuttābs,
madrasahs, and mosque-universities, all of which still exist today. In precolonial and
colonial times, kuttābs, both rural and urban, served young children as their first
educational institution, often constituting the only formal education a child would
receive. The curriculum was largely Qur’ānic memorization. Madrasahs and to a
large extent mosque-universities were generally only located in cities. Madrasahs
Islamic Education in Morocco 3

usually served somewhat older children who had distinguished themselves in the kuttāb
or whose parents were wealthy enough to send them to the city and support their studies.
At the madrasah, students studied a wider variety of subjects including grammar, fiqh
(jurisprudence or sharī ’ah law), tafsī r (Qur’ānic exegesis), etc. Mosque-universities
were sites of higher learning in the subjects offered in the madrasahs and additional
subjects including philosophy, history, etc. A general description of the structure of
learning in Islamic higher education in Morocco portrays it as very open and well
rounded, emphasizing choice, autonomy, access, and personal development:

... its internal structure nevertheless showed an originality which made, for example the
Qarawīyyīn University comparable to an American college. This originality could be seen:
(a) in the material organization of education since the place of learning was open both to the
student (in the restricted and classical sense of the term) and also to the ordinary citizen who
wished to deepen his knowledge of theology without being hindered by strict and paralyzing
administrative procedures; (b) in its independence from the administrative and political
authorities; (c) in educational terms, for real importance was attached to the periods of
training being imposed, emphasis was placed on the freedom of choice of the student and on
continuing individual efforts to acquire knowledge; and (d) in that the notions of backward-
ness, wastage, failures, and maladjustment to school, so important in an educational network
subject to the modern demands of production were not considerations in this system of
education. (Lahjomri 1985: 3417)

In large part, these characteristics could also be used to describe madrasahs and
even kuttābs to a certain extent.
Students in these Islamic schools in Morocco studied and progressed at their own
pace in mastering material. There were no set school year and no formal tests. In
their emphasis on students learning at their own pace, absent notions of uniformity
and failure, Islamic institutions had put into practice centuries ago many educational
ideals that we embrace today as positive, holistic, and student-centered.
In terms of actual classroom activity at the madrasah and kuttāb levels in
particular, students copied and memorized. Kuttāb students copied Qur’ānic verses
onto wooden lawḥs which were flat wooden slates with a whitewash applied to them
that allowed them to act almost like chalkboards. Students wrote on them with pens
dipped in a black inky mixture. When they memorized the verse they had written
out, they cleaned the lawḥ and began writing and memorizing another verse (Abu-
Talib 1987). Teachers coached students individually or in small groups, listening to
them recite and correcting their mistakes both oral and written. After memorizing the
Qur’ān, students who stayed in school moved to other subjects and other texts and on
to a madrasah if possible. Methods also evolved to include more explanation.
Traditionally, teachers of the Qur’ān and Islamic studies were given great respect in
Morocco, and there is a proverb that says when Moroccan fathers brought their sons to
the fqih (traditional teacher) to learn the Qur’ān, they would tell him “if you kill him I
will bury him” meaning that the fqih had free reign with the child. This also points to the
great prestige associated with learning the Qur’ān. It was considered so important and
4 H.N. Boyle and A. Boukamhi

sacred that learning it was worth almost any punishment. Another folk saying goes “any
part of the body struck while memorizing the Qur’ān will not burn in hell” (Wagner
1983b: 184). Traditional Qur’ānic schools did rely heavily on corporal punishment to
discipline students, to “correct” mistakes and to “motivate” students to learn better.

A New Type of Moroccan School: The “Modern” Public School

During the colonial period (1912–1956), the French introduced an alternative model
of schooling into the Moroccan context, primarily designed to educate personnel to
serve in the French colonial administration. However, it had lasting repercussions,
beyond the simple supply of labor to sustain the French administration. Since French
principles of colonization involved strong tendencies toward assimilating natives
into French culture (Watson 1982), the institutions implanted in the colonies were
replicas of French institutions in France. In Morocco, not surprisingly, French (not
Arabic) was the language of instruction. In the days immediately following colo-
nialism, the system left behind by the French was deepened and expanded and,
eventually, Arabized, especially in terms of the language of instruction.
The underlying assumptions that permeated colonial and postcolonial public edu-
cation in Morocco were based on French educational values and ideas, which had little
in common with the Islamic assumptions and values of the original system. For
example, the French school system was based chiefly on the encyclopedist principles
of rationalism, universality, and utility which called for a centralized, standardized
curriculum imparting a scientific outlook (as opposed to a more spiritual or intuitive
one) and the offering of a broad base of subjects, without early specialization or
concentration (such as on the Qur’ān). Moreover, students were to acquire knowledge
in the same order, at the same pace nationwide. Grade promotion was based on a
system of national examinations, which were also completely standardized to ensure
uniformity and fairness (Holmes and McLean 1989). These precepts were very
different from the traditional Islamic method of having students progress at their
own pace, based on mastery of material, as opposed to test results.
The principal of utility mandated that rational knowledge be applied for the
improvement of society. This was very much in line with Islamic educational thinking,
where the goals of schooling and community life were typically closely linked.
However, the application of this principle, which justified many forms of vocational
education, was never viewed as highly as the more theoretical focus of study by the
French themselves or the Moroccans afterward. That said, during this period of
independence, public school education did lead to jobs and to greater economic
prosperity. The new government employed almost all university and high school
graduates, many of them as teachers in the new Moroccan educational system. Thus,
modern education was seen as having utility; it was an avenue not just to acquire
individual prosperity but an avenue toward national development. Hence, demand for
public education grew, as the demand for traditional Islamic education waned.
Islamic Education in Morocco 5

Adaptation and Complementarity

Adaptation

Some kuttābs, most madrasahs, and all mosque-universities like the al-Qarawīyyīn
were eventually drawn into the government system (a process started by the French),
and they evolved into a separate religious track of schooling offered under the
auspices of the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs. Together, these
schools teach a broader array of subjects, and they award formal credentials equiv-
alent to those from the public school and university system. In an interview with the
newspaper Asharq Alawsat (Middle East) (2012), the Director of Traditional Edu-
cation in the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs (MERA) reported that
there were 499 MERA traditional Islamic schools in Morocco, 68.47% of which
were in rural areas, according to official ministry statistics for the school year
2010–2011. Of these he reported that only five were fully sponsored and managed
by the ministry, while the ministry provided grants and compensation to the students
and the teachers (respectively) of another 156 schools. The rest of the schools were
supported by philanthropists/benefactors from the communities. These schools are
analogous to Catholic schools in the United States or Europe, for example. Like
those schools, most of these traditional schools in Morocco are privately supported
and run. In terms of location, 67% of these schools are annexed to mosques, and
some of the classroom spaces lack water, proper sanitation, and electricity. Most
(almost 80%) are in reach of telephone lines, and 13% even have Internet. There are
approximately 30,000 students (around 13% of whom are female) enrolled in these
499 schools (Asharq Alawsat, No. 122008, May 1, 2012.).
In general, these schools still encompass the teaching of Qur’ānic memorization
but also offer more formalized study of Islamic topics as well as secular subjects. The
Director of Traditional Education in the Ministry of Endowment and Religious
Affairs further stated in the same interview that these schools were brought under
the MERA in 2001 because the King wanted traditional education to become more
formal in terms of its exam system, its own regulations and supervision structure,
and its diplomas/certificates. For example, the enrolment age in the traditional
educational stream has been changed to age 6 which is the same as the public
schools. (It should be noted as well that many countries sought to impose greater
regulation on Islamic schools in the wake of 9/11.)
In April of 2004 in an official speech, King Mohamed VI said: “...we are
interested in improving the traditional schools and preserving the memorization of
the Qur’ān; we will protect these schools from any threat as they are part of the
Moroccan identity. We are also providing training and integrating the graduates of
traditional schools into the public education system. We are committed to avoiding
closed thinking and a closed mentality while being open to other cultures.” The
King’s choice of words is also significant. Madrasah simply means school in
Arabic; public schools in Morocco are, therefore, madrasahs. The term that the
6 H.N. Boyle and A. Boukamhi

King and MERA officials used to describe Islamic schools can be translated as
“traditional” or “old” schools (‫)ﺍﻝﻡﺩﺍﺭﺱ ﺍﻝﻉﺕﻱﻕﺓ‬. Indeed, the King seems to prefer to
use the term “traditional school” rather than madrasah by itself, most likely to ensure
that Moroccan Islamic schools are not associated with radical Islam in the way that
the term madrasah might connote in other contexts. Under the directorate of
traditional education in the MERA, reforms in the formal Islamic educational stream
opened up more opportunities for the graduates, who, under the old system, mostly
became village preachers and received very meager annual compensation, which
was often in the form of the main product of the region and a little money. Now, the
graduates are officially qualified to perform a wider variety of jobs including
religious counselor, imām, and a wider variety of religious preacher positions,
some with regular monthly salaries. In addition, the students who get a baccalaureate
from an Islamic traditional school can continue their education at a Moroccan
university and earn a B.A. or a master’s degree. Graduates of the traditional Islamic
educational stream often choose majors that are closer to their diploma such as
Arabic language, Islamic studies, and history. With these degrees, however, the
graduates are qualified to apply for a much wider variety of jobs, including teaching
and other government and private sector posts.
While some kuttābs were drawn into the government stream of Islamic education
described above, many were not. Those that remained were faced with a dilemma, in
that their ability to attract pupils had started to decline. Ever resourceful, most of
these kuttābs transformed themselves into Qur’ānic pre-schools, a role encouraged
and endorsed by the monarchy as well. Pupils spent a year or two in a kuttāb and then
went on to first grade. In addition and alternatively, kuttāb teachers opened religious
summer schools, so that children could continue to memorize the Qur’ān in the
traditional way, even after they enrolled in public school. In these two forms, kuttābs
continued to have a robust presence on the educational landscape in Morocco.
Indeed, in the late 1980s and the 1990s, Wagner estimated that in Morocco,
approximately 80% of all children still attended some form of Qur’ānic school for
a portion of their school years (Wagner 1998).
King Hassan II endorsed Qur’ānic schools as pre-schools in 1968 in a speech
where he attested to the value of the kuttāb as a Moroccan tradition and laid out the
idea that the kuttāb should be a preschool for children (Bouzoubaa 1998). This
speech explicitly referred to a social benefit in sending a child to the kuttāb, with its
primary focus on memorization. The king’s argument was that if one memorizes one
can pray. If one prays one goes to the mosque. If one goes to the mosque, one
engages with the community of practice in one’s town, one’s country, and even the
global ummah. Hassan II expressed it as follows:

. . .but the importance [of going to mosque and seeing people pray] lies in the fact that they
see the greatness of Muslims and their togetherness. Also, they adopt that impression [of
togetherness] that will always remain engraved in their minds.

These Qur’ānic pre-schools (which are usually simply referred to as kuttābs) are
encouraged and regulated to a certain degree by the government in that they receive
Islamic Education in Morocco 7

some oversight from the Ministry of Education and are considered part of the school
system, although the ministry does not provide any financial support at the opera-
tional level.
Research on Moroccan kuttābs over the last 40 years attests to how well they have
adapted to a context in which public schools are the main source of education for
children and to how they have taken on a role in preparing children for public
schooling. Qur’ānic preschools teach children to sit in rows, recite in unison, recite
individually, socialize with other children, respect the teacher, and learn to count and
recognize numbers and learn to recognize and write letters and sometimes even
words (Wagner 1989). Qur’ānic pre-schools initiate children into the culture, behav-
ior, and expectations of formal schooling, possibly making them more ready to learn
and succeed in school. Adaptation extends beyond the behavioral to the content
areas as well:

As it happens, many indigenous schools provide, as a by-product of religious training,

language, cognitive, and social skills very similar to those which are taught in the contem-
porary secular school system. (Wagner 1989: 7)

Qur’ānic pre-schools in Morocco are often cited as sources of literacy in Arabic.

Traditionally, the idea of literacy in the Qur’ānic school context included the ability
to recite the Qur’ān, although not necessarily the ability to decode words and
sentences. However, even using the “modern” conception of literacy as
encompassing the ability to read and write, Qur’ānic schools do provide literacy
education:

...Qur’ānic school includes a number of common features for literacy instruction: oral
memorization of the Qur’ān; emphasis on correct (that is, accurate and aesthetic) oral
recitation; training in the Arabic script; and strict authoritarian instruction. (Wagner 1983a:
81)

Wagner also raises some questions as to whether rote learning – a common

feature of Qur’ānic preschools – is as detrimental as previously thought. He cites
evidence from work he has done with the Morocco Literacy Project which suggests
that prior memorization is a help to reading acquisition in Arabic. He also cites work
by Chomsky which suggests that being able to orally recite passages before having
to decode them helped children who normally had trouble with reading fluency
(Wagner 1983b: 187).
Recently, the Ministry of Education did put forth basic objectives for pre-schools,
including kuttābs, which are counted as part of the Ministry of Education’s system,
encouraging them to ensure that their pupils:

• Memorize several Qur’ānic verses

• Begin to learn the basic principles of Islam
• Prepare for admission to the first cycle of primary education
• Acquire educational habits and concepts of spatial organization and guidance
8 H.N. Boyle and A. Boukamhi

• Educate children’s senses and cultivate their ability to pay attention and express
themselves
• Develop fine motor and physical skills, especially through drawing and writing
(Moroccan Ministry of National Education (n.d.) http://www.men.gov.ma/Lists/
Pages/cycles_ens_presco-prim_prog.aspx)

These goals effectively encourage Qur’ānic pre-schools to adapt and expand their
curriculum beyond Qur’ānic memorization, something many kuttābs have done over
the last 15 years. According to teachers interviewed in 2013, parents have started
asking for new subjects, in addition to Qur’ānic memorization, such as learning the
alphabet and writing, numeracy, and even familiarization with the French alphabet
and vocabulary. Only 10 years ago, kuttāb teachers use to teach three ḫizbs (sections)
of the Qur’ān, but this has been reduced to only one ḫizb (the Qur’ān is made up of
60 ḫizbs). The Qur’ān is taught for 2 hours each day (1 hour in the morning and
1 hour in the afternoon), and the rest of the school day (about 3 hours) is given over
to other subjects as described above. Though the ministry has not adopted a specific
textbook for kuttābs, teachers were advised through trainings offered by the provin-
cial delegations of education to use the My Daily Activities textbook because it is
oriented toward achieving the above goals, including numeracy lessons, the Arabic
alphabet, and some drawing and coloring.
Indeed, the rise of public schooling has had a profound effect on the pedagogy
in Qur’ānic preschools and not just the curriculum. While they are changing,
Moroccan public schools still tend to adhere to the idea of the teacher as the
giver of knowledge, a figure of authority not to be too overtly challenged. Methods
tend to be lecture, “chalk and talk” as opposed to really interactive or student
cantered. Qur’ānic preschools have tended to imitate these methods more and
more, having children sit in rows, sometimes at desks and chairs, use blackboards,
pencils and paper, and listen to the teacher lecture. Indeed, many of the pedagogical
techniques found in kuttābs 50 or 100 years ago could be described as student-
centered and cooperative. Group work, peer tutoring, independent work, and
mastery learning are all things that have gained prominence and approval in current
educational discourse, as educators learn more and more about how children learn
and what sorts of techniques and environments foster learning. In this sense,
Qur’ānic schools in Morocco have valuable lessons to offer to public schooling,
both in Morocco and elsewhere, but these lessons have been ignored and continue
to be ignored, even by the Qur’ānic schools themselves (Boyle 2004). The wisdom
of kuttābs increasingly turning to the public school model of teaching for inspira-
tion is perhaps questionable, and the impact of the shift away from Qur’ānic
memorization and traditional pedagogy remains to be seen. However, as much as
kuttābs adapt to public school methods and ways, it is important to note that from
the perspective of Moroccan tradition and the development of children’s cultural
identity, Qur’ānic preschools play a greater role than simply preparing students for
public school.
Islamic Education in Morocco 9

Complementarity

Qur’ānic preschools have been able to survive and adapt to the current and over-
whelming demand for public schooling not only because they have taken on an
explicit role in preparing children for public school but also because they are valued
for things that public schools – and secular kindergartens or nursery schools – do not
do or are not perceived to do well (Boyle 2004). Part of their persistence relates to the
complementary role they play vis-à-vis the public schools.
First and foremost, they facilitate memorization of some of the Qur’ān at an early
age, when children are most able to memorize and retain. Memorization of the Qur’ān,
even in this abridged form, is significant not because children understand what they have
memorized, nor because it is a step on the road to memorizing the full Qur’ān, but
because this relatively brief exercise in learning has the lasting effect of embodying the
Qur’ān in the beings of these kuttāb students. The embodied Qur’ān preserves not just
the words or the grammar, which are not in danger of being lost or mixed up these days,
but the living spirit of the document vis-à-vis Moroccan practice. A part of the Qur’ān is
engraved in the mind of these pre-school children. To extend this metaphor, engraving is
subject to erosion from the elements; and so too are Qur’ānic verses engraved on the
human mind subject to erosion from social elements. However, the wind and rain and
other elements that erode the carving on a piece of stone have to work twice as hard if
the material is deeply engraved. In Morocco, conventional wisdom suggests that
Qur’ānic verses can be more deeply etched on the pliable material of the child than
on the more brittle, less malleable material of the adult. Thus, the effort expended to
memorize the Qur’ān at an early age is worth the effort since the verses engraved on the
young child are less susceptible to erosion by the elements in adulthood and the Qur’ān
remains embodied within the person.
Indeed, Qur’anic memorization is emphasized in Moroccan learning traditions
more so than in other Islamic countries (Eickelman 1985). Embodiment casts Qur’ānic
memorization in a decidedly more positive light than referring to it as mindless rote
learning that leads to a blind acceptance of certain ideas and tenants, as has been done
in the past (MacDonald 1911; Michaux-Bellaire 1911; Miller 1977; Zerdoumi 1970;
Talbani 1996) and partially explains the continued popularity of kuttābs in Morocco.
That said, there is, of course, a path that community members and parents would like
to see their children take, and this is the path of Islam. However, they see Qur’ānic
memorization as a way of giving children a source of direction to this path, but not a way
of guaranteeing their children’s adherence to this path (Boyle 2004). Indeed, the
memorized Qur’ānic verses are thought to act as a point of reference, a compass, as
children grow older, understand more of what they have memorized, and make deci-
sions about the direction of their lives. This aligns to the notion in Islamic education that
memorization is the beginning of learning and not the end goal (Boyle 2006). Parents
and community members want their children to follow the path of Islam and to be good
citizens in their immediate communities and also in their national and global commu-
nities. The compass acquired in the Qur’ānic school helps the growing child to navigate
10 H.N. Boyle and A. Boukamhi

along the paths of tradition and modernity, to find direction and orientation, and to make
decisions about which way to go and which path to choose (Boyle 2004).
In addition to memorization, Qur’ānic preschools provide traditional discipline
for children, keeping them from the idleness of the street and explicitly teaching
them culturally valued forms of behavior, including how to be polite, how to greet
elders, how to pray, how to wash for prayers, and other aspects of traditional
knowledge and behavior. Parents in Morocco really want to see their children
internalize and exhibit these traditional behaviors, even though they want them to
go to public schools and learn math and science and French (Boyle 2004). The fqih
(traditional Islamic teacher) whom we interviewed in 2013 affirmed that teachers
from public schools still acknowledge to him the good behavior and diligence of
students who attended the kuttābs for preschool.
Finally, Qur’ānic preschools offer students the opportunity to participate in a very
Moroccan rite of passage, one that their parents and grandparents probably experi-
enced. As Qur’ānic memorization was particularly emphasized in Moroccan pre-
colonial educational traditions, this exercise of memorizing the Qur’ān in the
contemporary Qur’ānic school still allows students to partake of this way of learn-
ing. Maintaining tradition is an important aspect of social life in Morocco. This is
especially true given the proximity of Morocco to Europe and the often overwhelm-
ing exposure to Western values, customs, and cultures that comes with this proximity
(Boyle 2000).
At the national level, Qur’ānic preschools (as the most prevalent form of tradi-
tional education) embody the continuation of a valued traditional institution – the
Moroccan Qur’ānic school – and thus represent a link with times past, with cultural
roots, and with Moroccan identity. Qur’ānic schools are one source of forming a
Moroccan Islamic identity in children, something critical to the political culture in
Morocco at the national level, where the monarchy draws it legitimacy from its
ancestry from the Prophet Muḥammad. Because they offer a tangible link to the past
and render a service, especially to lower-income parents, they are a source – one
among many, to be sure – of political stability (Boyle 2000).

Conclusion

By creating the directorate of traditional education within the Ministry of Endowment

and Religious Affairs (which can be considered as a major reform related to Islamic
education) and by encouraging the use of Qur’ānic preschools (and drawing them
under the Ministry of Education), Morocco is moving toward creating a unique model
in the MENA region to promote modern Islam and to preserve its tradition of Qur’ānic
memorization. This model takes Islamic education as its main foundation but uses
public school pedagogy and a mixture of religious and modern curricula. The religious
stream in the public education system and the kuttābs themselves open avenues for
students to pursue public education and public higher education, if they do well in
school, while grounding them in their Moroccan, Islamic identity. Even the religious
Islamic Education in Morocco 11

stream of public schooling now offers various trainings and career pathways after
graduation, linking it to economic productivity and the ability to earn a living.
Indeed, Morocco has managed to integrate two very different educational tradi-
tions (religious and secular or modern) into a system of education that encompasses
both. In encouraging the use of its traditional system of Qur’ānic schools in a “new”
way (as preschools and supplemental schools), Morocco has maintained a link with
the basics of a hallowed Moroccan tradition and fosters a sense of educational
continuity with the past. Further, by channeling this tradition, in the form of the
Qur’ānic preschools, into a means of support to the public education sector in
general, the two systems become linked in a shared mission to promote education,
school success and literacy, as well as religious practice and Qur’ānic knowledge.
While the Islamic schools have been the ones to by and large adapt themselves to the
current situation, their survival points to the complementarity of these two disparate
educational traditions in Morocco. Indeed, by promoting Islamic education in this
new way, the government preserves Morocco’s own distinct tradition of memoriza-
tion of the Qur’ān while encouraging openness, tolerance, and the complementarity
of both religious and modern knowledge.

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