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Speaking English in Morocco is still not mainstream, according to the recent report issued by Education First, an international education company specialized in language training, education travel, academic degree programs and cultural exchange. Ranked 60th out of 80 countries by the English Proficiency Index (EPI), the kingdom is part of the Very Low category.
Based on data gathered by the seventh edition of the EPI, Morocco has fallen by almost two points, dropping into the very low proficiency band. It lost 1.95 points after scoring in 2016 49.86 compared to 47.91 in the current edition. Accordingly, younger people have a similar understanding of English as other people in Morocco as the gap is the one of the narrowest in the world.
Regionally, Morocco is still one of the best performing countries when it comes to English language proficiency in North Africa. Behind Tunisia (56th), Morocco is positioned second in the region followed by Egypt 66th, Algeria 76th and Libya 78th. Compared to other African countries, the Kingdom’s performance remains limited as to the one of Nigeria 31st, and South Africa 8th.
In the global ranking, Morocco is positioned behind Syria 58th and Qatar 59th and ahead of Sri lanka 61st, Turkey 62nd, Jordan 63rd and Azerbaijan 64th. Morocco has seen the largest decline in the region when compared to Tunisia (most improved), and South Africa (highest country).
English in Morocco
According to the EPI’s analysis «since the 2014-2015 school year, three Moroccan public high schools have had international sections. Students in these international sections follow the same curriculum as other students, which is taught in French, but they also receive additional instruction in either English or Spanish, and that second language is also the medium of instruction for some of their other coursework».
The same report indicates that the sample tasks for Moroccan students are limited to the following : Introduce oneself simply, understand simple signs and give basic directions to a foreigner visitor.
For gender gap, it appears that women are more into English than men in Morocco. In their score, men had 47. 26 points as opposed to women who obtained 49.08 points. Regionally, women scored more than men in Africa with 54.50 points.
Globally, the ranking was topped by the Netherlands first, Sweden 2nd, Denmark 3rd, Norway 4th and Singapore 5th. Libya 78th, Iraq 79th and Laos 80th are in the bottom of the list. For the record, the EF English Proficiency Index ranks the average level of English language skills in different countries based on an EF test available on the internet.
