Morocco: French Losing to Arabic ; English Making Inroads

In Moroccan foreign language students’ views of a career in teaching, by CHRIS KYRIACOU AND NAIMA BENMANSOUR, 2002:

"(...) in the last two decades, French has been losing ground to Arabic which, through the process of Arabisation, is gradually assuming many of the functions that used to be fulfilled by French (Redouane 1998). At the same time, English has been
making inroads into Morocco, infiltrating the education system and socioeconomic life.
Nowadays, Moroccans regard English as the gateway to the outside world and to scientific and technological development. At university level, a degree in English is seen to secure more job opportunities than a degree in French. As a consequence, students in English Departments far outnumber those in French Departments. Developments in higher education (see Meziani 1999) include the emergence of new institutions using English as the medium of instruction. Indeed, English has gained such popularity that, in many circumstances, it is rivalling French as the preferred foreign language. Taken together, it can be seen that in Morocco there is a high demand for graduates of English and French, in teaching and in other careers."