Al Maghrib - June 21, 1937
We are now in full session of exams. This period is one of great gravitas in the order of priorities for civilized nations cognizant of the value of science. However which nation today grants no interest to the spread of knowledge and fails to recognize its impact on various aspects of modern life? Putting this nation aside, what other has a group of its nationals who seek to quench their thirst from the springs of knowledge and find no one to inspire them to pursue this course be it at the individual or governmental level? This growing carefree attitude, an agent of our past leaden legacy, prevents detection of even the slightest hints as to the importance of this session to the youth preoccupied by their future. The period of exams causes no reverberations throughout Moroccan society; its intellectuals show no interest in the success or failure of the candidates. It is as if Moroccan youth's future is of concern only to them and that education represents only a secondary import to the course of their existence.
While I am writing these lines, I run my eyes over a correspondence from Fez about the exams being held at Karaouiyine and the regressive state of this university once known as a beacon of light and a tower of knowledge. This incomprehensible collapse demands that intellectuals huddle together to study in depth its condition and problems. The number of candidates taking the Karaouiyine exams is dropping year after year. This has reached the point where they number in the dozens today whereas they numbered in the hundreds in the recent and not so recent past. Moreover there were periods of its history where their numbers were in the thousands. The number of currently registered students barely reached a total of 126 which includes all classes and all levels of studies combined. Meanwhile there are a number of classes where no candidate came forward to take the exam.
Who is at fault? Is it the system of education that has been adopted or a lack of encouragement for students at this university or is it some other cause? This is what I submit for the reflection of those for whom the future of Moroccan education is a priority in their missions with the hope that they will do a careful study to identify and eliminate the causes that have let our University slide into this precipitous abyss.
