Essential Question- What Resources are Available to Deaf Students in Morocco?
I have taught special education (mild intervention) at my high school for the past five years. I understand how difficult school can be for the students I work with and I understand the number of resources that must be available to them in order for them to succeed. Before I went to Morocco, I was curious as to how the Moroccan education system deals with students who have a disability and what kind of future may be available for them. While in Morocco I had the opportunity to visit a special education classroom in El Jadida. In general, it seems as though students with disabilities in Morocco do not have many opportunities or programs available to them especially those who do not have (for lack of a better word) obvious disabilities (learning disability, high functioning Asperger’s, ADHD etc.). This caused me to narrow my focus to find out what resources were available to the deaf students of Morocco. I had the opportunity to visit a classroom for students who were deaf. The classroom I visited was the only classroom available to these students in approximately fifty miles. In Morocco there are few special schools or special programs available for students with disabilities. The deaf classroom I attended had 12 students aging anywhere from eight to fifteen. The teacher broke up the students into three different lessons all working on different levels of reading/writing competencies. They all shared one classroom in a public elementary school and were all taught by one teacher. Each student will stay in that same classroom until the teacher and parents agree that the student is capable enough to learn a job skill usually at the age of 16 or older. From there they will receive training from a vocational school where they will learn simple employment skills that will help them obtain a job. These jobs are very limited and seem to include careers like hairdressing and shoe making. These students cannot go to high school or university without major resources being provided from parents or outside donations. There are a few success stories where students have gotten a bachelor’s degree, but it was not because of government programs or resources. In these cases parents usually have extensive resources and a desire to educate their child the best they can. The teachers here are not even provided with a specialized curriculum or resources from the Ministry of Education. The classroom teacher has to modify every part of the curriculum to suit her students’ needs at all levels of competencies. After speaking with her, I could tell she was a wonderful woman. She really cared about her students and had a passion for her work despite the lack of resources and extra effort it required. Special education teachers have to love what they do. In Morocco they must put in more hours than general education teachers and receive the same amount of pay. They have to alter curriculum to fit their students’ needs, they must plan several different lessons to reach every level of competency in their classroom, and they must stay with the same students the entire school day year after year. The local hospital in El Jadida offers some reprieve. They offer therapy sessions to her students, at the expense of individuals or large businesses who generously donate their financial resources. Most funding must be obtained in this way often by the principal. The ministry provides very little. Even with this generosity, the deaf students of El Jadida (save a couple of rare occasions) can only hope for menial employment, but not much else. Given Morocco’s unemployment rate just below 10% (the United States sits at 5.3%) may not be all that bad (Unemployment). I still find this fact especially sad since deaf students have the same cognitive abilities as their speaking peers. They simply cannot communicate the same way. Since not everyone knows Belgian sign language (the type of sign language taught in El Jadida), they must settle for what little is available. To further muddy the issue, the type of sign language taught to students can vary from one part of the country to the next. Since there is not standardized deaf curriculum, teachers are left to their own capabilities. The classroom I visited taught (French) Belgian sign language but teachers around the country may introduce exact translations of spoken French and Arabic and may even introduce some words from American Sign Language (Morocco). The teacher I spoke with further confirmed this as she stated that often Belgian sign language did not have words for some aspects of Moroccan culture. Officially, Moroccan sign language is the language of choice, but just like Moroccan Arabic, it is a fusion of varying influences.
I feel it is important to note that there has been some progress in terms of educating students who are deaf. In 2002, King Mohammed VI dedicated a school for deaf students in the city of Oujda. The facility was designed to house and educate one hundred Moroccan students and was financed by a $4 million donation. Since it houses students, there is an opportunity for those students from rural areas to seek better education opportunities (Deaf Today). This school was not mentioned during my visit so it would seem to serve of little consequence to the students of El Jadida but at least there is some movement in the government to acknowledge the 155,000 total hearing impaired of Morocco (Morocco). It is also important to note that with the advent of new technologies and social media, students are now communicating with each other and organically creating a national standard sign language (Morocco). Now that a student from El Jadida can visually communicate with a student in Rabat, they can interact in new ways and in some way agree upon and alter the language they decide to communicate.
Given Morocco’s lack of public educational resources, it seems to be doing the best it can to educate the thousands of deaf students in Morocco. Schools are being built and classrooms are being designated to house and educate this population. It seems that progress is slow as with any nation but through donations, loving teachers and an increasingly supportive government, the deaf students of Morocco will hopefully in the near future have the same resources and opportunities available to every other student.
Work Cited
1. Deaf Today: King Mohammed dedicates institution for deaf students in Oujda, meals to the poor. (n.d.). Retrieved July 10, 2015, from http://www.deaftoday.com/news/archives/2002/11/king_mohammed_d.html
2. Morocco. (n.d.). Retrieved July 10, 2015, from https://www.ethnologue.com/country/MA/languages
3. Unemployment Rate. (n.d.). Retrieved July 10, 2015, from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/country-list/unemployment-rate