THE ORIGINS AND SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE FREE SCHOOL MOVEMENT
IN MOROCCO, 1919-1931*
par J. DAMIS
Introduction
To introduce the reader to the subject of this article, it is necessary first to explain the precise meaning of the term "free school". The term "free" is a translation of the Arabic word h'urr, which in this sense means "private" or "free from government control" rather than "free of tuition". But the term "free school" does not apply to all private schools ; it includes only those which are indigenously sponsored. In Morocco the term does not include either the schools established by the Alliance Israélite Universelle, various missionary organizations, or other private groups. The instruction in the free schools was usually confined to the elementary level, though some of the schools did include classes at the secondary level.
Before World War I, some modernization of traditional elementary education in Morocco did occur, but it was limited to isolated instances ( 1 ). In general, attempts at reform were not very successful in Morocco during the century which preceded the establishment of the French protectorate (1912-1956) (2). Moroccan
(*) Much of the information for this article is from interviews, too numerous to list, with free-school founders, teachers, and students. Among my informants, the following special mention : Mehdi Bennouna, Mohammed Daoud, Abdesselam al-Fassi, Ahmad Ahmad Mekwar, and Mekki NacirL I am also indebted to several persons who kindly and commented on earlier drafts of this article : Kenneth Brown, John Spencer, Robert John Demos, and especially Mohammed Guessous. Parts of this article appeared in a form in Humaniora Islamica, Vol. I (1973). (1) During the first decade of this century, for example, Abdullah ben Driss as-Sanusi, a exponent of Salafiyya, gave lessons of a more modern nature in Tangier, concentrating Koranic commentary, and the Moroccan wife of a Lebanese living in Fez established and for girls a private school with a modern curriculum which included arithmetic. (2) This is not to suggest, however, that Moroccan society remained static during this Two recent studies show in detail that the standard account of a stagnant internal in Morocco is seriously in error. During the nineteenth century, Morocco became to world-wide commercial and financial networks ; as a result, internal economic and patterns changed significantly. (See Stuart H. Schaar, "Conflict and Change in Century Morocco", Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, Princeton University, 1966). And the period from 1900 to 1912, there were several reformist currents at work, including