The survival of Mauritania’s non-Arabic cultures, according to opposition groups, would be threatened by a law that they have pledged to continue demonstrating against. The Mauritanian government says that the new law, passed this summer, is a much-needed educational reform.
“[This will] put an end to the alarming deterioration of the national education system,” the National Education Minister Mohamed Melainine Ould Eyih said earlier this year in a public appearance.
The law passed in July calls for primary-level classes to be taught in a local vernacular. It also requires the teaching of Arabic to non-Arabic speakers. Additionally, it also requires the teaching of at least one national language to Arabic speakers.
