Hello,
First of all, I wish a happy new year to all who may
be concerned.
This year, I spent Christmas and New Year Eve in an
unusual way, since I was in the Sahara desert (south
of Algeria) for 15 days, as an ecotourist.
I had a real great time over there, which I will share
with Wikipedia in trying to improve many articles
related to the areas I went to, as well as with many
pictures.
However, I wished to share a couple of additional
things/thoughts with you. About languages and
education.
I spent a little while in Tamanrasset, and discussed
with some of it inhabitants, men and women. It is a
strange situation, as it cannot be said that people
are "poor", in the sense that most have the basics
which allow them to live quite happily. The city is
growing pretty fast (50 000 unhabitants), but is not
sustainable for its water, nor for its food, nor for
most of its industrial goods. Most of it is imported
from the north of Algeria. The city is essentially
living from camels, goats and sheep... and tourism in
the surroundings of course. While the city is shared
by many ethnies and different nationalities, most
people over there are muslims. They speak a mixture of
Tuareg language (tamazight or tamahaq) and some local
arab which can hardly be recognised by those of us
French who learned classical arab in France.
One thing surprised me greatly. I thought the majority
of Algerians could be said to speak French (since
Algeria was previously a french colony). Well, I
discovered over there that if all adults have notions
of french language, many of them are very very far
from fluent. I could speak to no kids under 15, even
though I was told that all of them start learning
french language at school from the age of 8 (?). So, I
went for a little check and discovered that according
to statistics, about 62% of Algerian speak decent
french (enough for communication), and this number
have been increasing in the past years.
Now, Tamanrasset is in the most southern part of
Algeria, so rather far away from France, though there
is still obviously strong French influence. People I
met talked with one another in Tamahaq, talk with
other Tamanrasset people in a southern arab, speak
with us in french, and receive education in classical
arab. Guys ! these people manage roughly 4 languages !
When France left Algeria, the whole educational system
was in french language; the algerian government tried
to switch entirely to classical arab over the years,
even though there were at that time not enough
teachers knowledgeable in classical arab, even though
most Algerians do not manage well classical arab, even
though there were no educational books in classical
arab to teach children. Over the years, the government
has tried to impose more and more classical arab, to
the dismay of all those speaking berberes languages
(such as the Touareg). From my friends in Algers, I
know that university education is still partly in
french, in particular in scientific and technical
domains. But from what I understood, the algerian
educational system is in great part a failure, as it
is taught in a language that many Algerian do not
manage well, as it results in diplomas of little value
on european or american market, and as many students
end up secondary school with such a poor knowledge in
french that they are unable to come to french
universities or even to follow well algerian
university classes. Possibly, knowing more of english
language might help but it seems currently limited.
Two things raised my attention greatly.
First, a university is currently being built in
Tamanrasset. For now, students usually go to Algers to
follow upper studies (about 1500 km away, which
evidently implies only quite wealthy people can afford
this).
Second, as we crossed villages in the mountains, we
were surrounded by kids, from 6 to 12. Only the eldest
could really communicate a bit with us. We had some
pens for them, which we distributed. But it was not
really what they were looking for. The youngest wanted
paper mostly. But all asked for books. Only books. Not
food, nor money, nor sweets, only books. And they
wanted books in french language. I told them "but you
can't read french". But this is what they wanted
nevertheless.
When I asked to my favorite guide, he told me "they
learn french at school, a little bit, but they have no
opportunity to practice. Except for a few tourists,
who could they talk french to ? At least, with books,
they can learn a bit".
I suspect the school probably only has a couple of
worn out ones. Possibly only a couple of worn out
books in arab as well.
I dig a couple of my son books to give them. Not much.
If I had guessed, it would have been easy to bring a
few more.
As I understood, analphabetism is rising over there,
especially among girls. If the kids do not speak
french, their access to university is limited. And the
main economical resource of the area is tourism, most
tourists being french speaking.
Computers in these villages is out of question. They
have electricity but I doubt a computer could survive
long in such an environment (I spent two hours in the
local gendarmerie, they have desks, paper, pens and
sand). However, most of our youngest guides had an
email adress and went on the net thanks to cybercafes
in Tamanrasset.
There might be things to do no ?
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