Colonial Moroccan Schools



Figure 1.--Here is a class at the Ecole Layris Vergaz in 1949. This would have been a state school. Notice the large size of the class. Many of the children wear smocks, but they were not required.

We have some information on colonial era schools. There were both state and private schools. The state schools as we understand it were open to both the French in Morocco and the native Moroccans, but were taught in French rather than Arabic. I am not sure if Arabic was included in the curriculum at all. There were also private schools, but many of the private schools would have been Catholic which would have had a much smaller proportion of Moroccan children. The objective of the state schools was not only to provide basic education to franicize the Morrocans. Partly for this reason, some Morrocan parents kept their children out of the schools. Many Moroccan children attended these schools in the cities because there were compulsory attendance laws, but attendance in rural areas was more limited. We have found some information on these colonial era schools.

Ecole Layris Vergaz

Here is a class at the Ecole Layris Vergaz in 1949 (figure 1). We know nothing about the school except is was located in Casablanca. We believe that this would have been a state school. Notice the large size of the class. Many of the children wear smocks, but they were not required. Most of the children look French, but we see Moroccan children as well.

Scuola Italiano

HBC has little information on the Tangiers Scuola Italiano, but we have noted several images illustrating schoolwear trends during the 1950s. While almost all of the children wear school smocks, in most of the class photographs there usualy appear to be a few children that are not wearing the smocks. We are not sure just what the school regulation was. Perhaps a exception was made for the Tunisian boys at the school.

Lycée Regnault

We have little information about the French Lycée Regnault at this time. It appears to be a single gender school or at least the classes were separated. We do not know if the school is still operating. A few school portraits are available from the 1960s. As in France, the school did not have a school uniform and the dress code, if any, was very relaxed. A class photograph from the shows that the pupils wore their regular clothes to school--various mostly casual styles. Two boys wear ties and several boys wear suit jackets. One boy seems towear a blazer without lapels. Few boys by the mid-1960s were wearing short pants to school. One boys in 1966-67 wears a sweater with short pants and dark kneesocks, but the other boys all wear long pants. This probably reflects school wear trends in France itself.

Talmud Torah

This is a Morrocan Jewish school in 1950. The right side of the Hebrew sign tells the name of the school -- Talmud Torah. The left looks like it is celebrating 'Independence Holiday' and a date below, obviously the number 5. The Hebrew Calendar 5 Iyar is Israel Independence which occurred in May, the 5th month. We cannot make out the word in between. The map looks like Israel.

Unidentified Casablanca school

Here we have a portrait from an unidentified Casablanca school. It is labeled Maman. All we know about the portrait is that it was taken in 1929. The children look to be all or mostly French children. We are unsure what kind of schools Moroccan children attended at the time. One interesting aspect of the portrait is the berets several of the children are wearing. Only the boys wore them and they were worn in different ways. A few boys wear smocks.







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Created: 10:53 PM 8/14/2006
Last updated: 1:09 AM 11/20/2012