The political instrumentalisation of an educational model in a colonial context: Spanish-Arab schools in Spanish Morocco (1912-1956)

The establishment of the Spanish Protectorate in Northern Morocco between 1912 and 1956 brought with it the need for Spain to create a colonial policy. Education was just one of the instruments put at the service of colonisation in the policy of territorial control. Spain implemented a colonial school model made up of Spanish schools, Spanish-Arab schools and Spanish-Jewish schools designed to educate the Moroccan and Spanish populations living in the area. Since education was considered a priority by the Spanish colonisers, they promoted Spanish-Arab schools as a key part of their colonial policy. The schools created for Moroccans by the Spaniards united tradition - the Arabic language and Muslim religion - with modernity, since the schools did not adhere to traditional Koranic education, but rather followed the teaching models and principles of the schools in Spain at the time, marking a turning point in education in Northern Morocco. The end goal was to instruct the population according to a pro-Spanish, coloniser-friendly ideology in order to control the society and territory in a way that complemented military policies. The instrumentalisation of these schools is reflected in the different names they were given throughout the period: consular schools, Spanish-Arab schools, indigenous schools, advanced schools and Moroccan schools. During the Franco period (193656), these institutions were instrumentalised not only in the Moroccan context, but also in the Spanish international context, and the process of Moroccanisation and nationalisation that Spanish-Arab schools underwent can only be understood against this backdrop. For Spain, this school model was new, although similar institutions had already been implemented in other Mediterranean countries including Turkey, Lebanon and Algeria.