Almaghrib - 1st year - Issue 25 - Juni 14, 1937

With the approach of the summer season, the month preceding the school holidays is distinguished from the other months of the year by an intense activity among the pupils, an increased interest of the parents and an unusual effervescence in the milieus which are in connection with the school or university life. All the glances are oriented in the same direction. Everybody waits. One speaks only about the examinations and the results to which they will lead.

When the results are posted up, a great agitation gains the candidates. The ones express their joy by dancing, others deplore sadness.

A group leaves the room of the examinations after having taken knowledge of the results with a calm and quiet spirit, as if success or failure did not have any importance for them.

Another group deplores a lack of chance, being convinced that they knew perfectly everything except the lesson to which the interrogation of the examination related. They never thought that they were going to fall on this lesson that they neglected because of its too great facility.

A third group ironically acknowledged to have learned only the lesson to which related the written interrogation, and that this happy circumstance enabled them to expect an excellent note in order to succeed in their exam.

A last group was occupied during the whole school year with things which had nothing to do with their studies, and did not feel any regret until the date of the examination was announced. They had a gloomy face and an anxious spirit when they decided to present themselves at the examination, as if it were a sort of lottery. If they succeed, they will be very happy; but in the case of failure, they will show signs of sorrow and repentance.

These are as many images which remain engraved in the candidate's mind when he enters the active life. He likes to remember them and to make them live again each time the period of the examinations approaches, capturing the spirit of the pupils, preoccupying the circles and organisations, and filling a huge vacuum in the columns of the newspapers which publish the results together with comments and criticism, and stress new methods of teaching.

The future of the nation depends on this month of the year and the progress registered in the results on which the whole nation lays its expectations combined with a ray of hope. It is not exagerated to note that the Governments dedicate them a much greater interest than the other projects supposed to strengthen the nation in the material field.

Education is not a marginal question which interests only a part of the nation. It is the concern of all, men and women. If this were not the case, it would be rather difficult to establish a distinction between them and the animals which walk on four legs.

The month of the examinations bears an extreme gravity in the nation's history. It is everywhere and each year accomodated with due deference and the firm will to make a new step ahead. It does not occur without creating an agitation the echo of which is reflected throughout the whole country. The department in charge of education proceeds to a stock taking in front of the nation to announce the progress made in the current of the past year and the prospectives for the coming year.

This month has come. But, where is the agitation caused by the period of examinations in our milieu? Do the department of education and its administrative structures render any account to the nation of their management of the sector of teaching? "All quiet on the western front". It is too strong a temptation to apply the title of this famous film to our nation in all the fields of its existence, and in particular in the sector of education.

It is useless to try to seek an atmosphere of examinations or to wish to see people gathering in front of the display boards to get informed of the proclaimed results. It is quite as useless to notice any unspecified agitation in the rows of the pupils. Their parents seem not to show any interest for this event, while the teaching milieus do not manifest any activity which is out of the ordinary.

Nothing of all this is to be watched or is expected to be watched as long as the nation does not appreciate the education in its right value, does not deploy there the necessary efforts to obtain the implementation of all or a part of its claims, and is satisfied to ask only what it wishes.

A nation which does not give top priority to the sector of education and does not do anything to carry it to the summit of its preoccupations is condemned to suffer great misfortune. The same punishment awaits all people who engage excessive expenditures for futilities and are miserly of a few dirhams to contribute to the realisation of a beneficial project aiming to save their nation from the suffocating atmosphere of ignorance.

The father enjoys celebrating the marriage of his son and spends for the wedding festivities briskly all his money. But, he complains about the crisis and shouts misery each time one asks him to provide a small effort to allow his child to study correctly. We celebrate by feasting all day and multiply the receptions and all kinds of rejoicings during which we have a pleasure to eat until we complain from bellyache.

When a well known charlatan makes his appearance in a city, we hasten to receive him with all the honors that we think they are due to his rank. We adulate him in ceremonies, compete of ingeniousness in the preparation of the various dishes and profit from these opportunities to eat ourselves to death.

But, we do not grant any interest to a studious student who counts among the intellectuals that the nation can be proud of. We do not consider the knowledges he acquired, the diplomas of higher education he obtained, the fact that he is regarded both as an example to follow for the young people of his generation, and a cultivated scholar within a society where the plague of ignorance prevails and, last but not least, the respect he inspires in the intellectual milieus where his opinions are taken into account and all his steps crowned with success.