Morocco - People
According to the last census, Morocco has a population approaching 30 million people, experiencing a transition on different levels. In 2005, 55% of the population is living in urban areas, compared to 43% in 1982 and 29% in 1960. The Moroccan population is young, with 38% under the age of 14 years, and life expectancy at birth has increased from 65 in 1980 to 68.5 in 2004. The country has made good progress in the control of preventable childhood diseases but social inequalities and health inequities remain the major problems for the third millennium. Despite the diverse resources (agriculture, phosphates, fishing, potentialities for tourism, etc...) and the progress achieved during the last decade, the country still ranked 125th according to the 2004 UNDP Human Development Index (HDI). This unpleasant position is mainly explained by low income, high adult illiteracy, lack of generalized education, and health indicators.
In Morocco, until recently, health was considered as a non-productive sector. Indeed, during the last four decades, the budget affected to health represented, on average, 1% of GDP each year and bad governance conducted to an ill-health system. Consequently, by the dawn of the third millennium, only 40% of births are attended by skilled health personnel, many women continue to die during childbirth and infant mortality rate remains relatively high. With an average of one doctor for 2100 inhabitants, Morocco compares badly with countries of equivalent level of development. Moreover, the partition is unfair since the numbers vary from one doctor for 840 inhabitants in one region to one doctor for 4600 in another region. Inequities are also found between cities and rural areas, with nearly 30% of the rural population living at a distance of 10 km from any health facility.
Most people live west of the Atlas Mountains, a range that insulates the country from the Sahara Desert. Casablanca is the center of commerce and industry and the leading port; Rabat is the seat of government; Tangier is the gateway to Spain and also a major port; "Arab" Fes is the cultural and religious center; and "Berber" Marrakech is a major tourist center.
Moroccans are predominantly Sunni Muslims of Arab, Berber, or mixed Arab-Berber ancestry. The Arabs brought Islam, along with Arabic language and culture, to the region from the Arabian Peninsula during the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. Today, there remains a Jewish community of approximately 5,000, and a largely expatriate Christian population of 5,000, who enjoy religious freedom and full civil rights. Morocco is also home to a 300-500-person Baha'i community which, in recent years, has been able to worship free from government interference.
Arabic is Morocco's official language, but French is widely taught and serves as the primary language of commerce and government. After 50 years of independence, 50% of the Moroccan population aged 15 and above are illiterate with women representing nearly 2/3. Very few Arab countries do worse than Morocco.
Moroccan colloquial Arabic, Darija, is composed of a unique combination of Arabic, Berber and French dialects. Along with Arabic, about 10 million Moroccans, predominantly in rural areas, also speak one of the three Moroccan Berber dialects (Tarifit, Tashelhit, and Tamazight). Spanish is also used in the northern part of the country. English is becoming an increasing foreign language of choice among educated youth and is offered in many public schools from the fourth year on.
Science and technical courses are taught in French, thereby reducing participation of the large, monolingual Moroccan-dialect, Arabic speaking, or Tamazight (Berber)-speaking populations. Educational reforms in the past decade emphasized the use of Arabic in secondary schools. Failure to transform the university system similarly led to the disqualification of many students from higher education in advanced technical fields. The poor lacked the means to obtain the necessary additional French instruction to supplement the curriculum taught in public schools.
Berbers, also known as Amazighs (meaning "the freeborn"), descend from the pre-Arab inhabitants of a region stretching from Egypt to the Canary Islands. Experts estimate as many as 20 million Moroccans speak a Berber dialect. But despite the country's Berber roots, the ruling elite suppressed Amazigh culture for decades following Morocco's independence in 1956. In 2011, the Amazighs won a landmark victory: official recognition of their language and culture in a new constitution. It followed months of Arab Spring-inspired protests by the 20 February Movement, a broad coalition in which Amazigh activists played a key role.
Approximately 60 percent of the population claimed Amazigh heritage, including the royal family. Amazigh cultural groups contended that their traditions and language were being lost rapidly to Arabization. The government added television programs in Tamazight in September 2007, and Tamazight language classes were included in the curriculum of a limited number of primary schools. In the 2007-08 school year, the government instituted an Amazigh language class in 3,470 schools, an increase of 2,806 from the previous academic year. Programs in one of the Berber languages were increasingly available on both radio and television. Despite the fact that the country is majority Amazigh, rural areas that are predominantly Amazigh are the poorest in the country. Illiteracy in some areas runs as high as 80 percent, and authorities there often do not provide basic governmental services.
Education in Morocco is free and compulsory through primary school (age 15). Nevertheless, many children--particularly girls in rural areas--do not attend school. The country's literacy rate reveals sharp gaps in education, both in terms of gender and location; while country-wide literacy rates are estimated at 39.6% among women and 65.7% among men, the female literacy rate in rural areas is only 10%.
Morocco is home to 14 public universities. Mohammed V University in Rabat is one of the country's most famous schools, with faculties of law, sciences, liberal arts, and medicine. Founded over 1,000 years ago, Karaouine University, in Fes, is the oldest center for Islamic studies in the Maghreb. Morocco's most prestigious private English-language university, Al-Akhawayn, was founded in 1993 by King Hassan II and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in Ifrane. Its curriculum is based on an American model.
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