Traditional Islamic Education in Morocco: Sociohistorical and Psychological Perspectives

As in many parts of the Muslim world, traditional Islamic schooling1 in Morocco predates modern formal schooling by almost a millennium. It has played a crucial historical role in the training of the nation's youth and continues to reach a higher percentage of school-age children than has the modern school system. Although such traditional Quranic schooling may have touched the lives of most Moroccans, its impact--relative to the modern school system--is not yet fully understood. Probably the most difficult aspect of analyzing the impact of traditional Quranic education is that there are several "types" of Quranic schools, and there are a number of levels of analysis upon which such education may be observed and discussed. Any discussion of the consequences of traditional Quranic schooling will, therefore, depend on an adequate understanding of the varieties of this type of traditional education. This paper will discuss present forms of traditional Quranic education in Morocco in the light of modernization. More specifically, discussion will center on the potential impact of such traditional pedagogy on various cognitive abilities, whose growth is sometimes said to have been stunted by such experiences. Quranic schooling, as used in this paper, refers specifically to the elementary and intermediate levels of traditional Quranic education, which provide the learner with the basic skills of reading, writing, elementary notions of grammar, and knowledge of Islamic law. Also, Quranic schooling requires the student to memorize part or all of the Quran itself. In this paper we will not, therefore, focus attention on advanced training in both religious and secular sciences (which were often taught only at the more prestigious mosque-universities), but will instead concentrate on schooling for younger children and adolescents.