Context
Across Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, English occupies a complex and evolving position within multilingual education systems shaped by Arabic heritage, French colonial legacy, and increasing globalisation. The regional report highlights that while English is widely recognised as critical for employability and international engagement, its integration across primary, secondary and tertiary levels remains uneven and politically sensitive.
At primary level, English often remains optional or inconsistently implemented. In secondary education, provision is expanding but uneven across regions, with urban areas typically better served. At tertiary level, English Medium Education (EME) is gaining prominence in professional disciplines, particularly in Morocco and Tunisia, but without fully coherent national policy frameworks.
Across the region, longstanding French influence continues to shape curriculum structures and institutional practice.
The Tunisia country report illustrates these tensions clearly: reform efforts are underway, including curriculum renewal, assessment reform, AI integration and textbook revision, yet implementation gaps persist due to policy inconsistency, infrastructure constraints and limited inspector capacity. Inspectors report uncertainty about reform timelines, lack of systemic progression planning, and overstretched support structures.
In Morocco, ambitious language goals sit within the 2015–2030 Strategic Vision and Framework Law 51.17, yet implementation strategies with clear SMART targets remain underdeveloped.
Similar systemic gaps appear across the region: teacher shortages, fragmented CPD pathways, outdated assessment systems, and limited alignment between policy intent and classroom practice.
Against this backdrop, the British Council commissioned a regional desk research and scoping study to define a coherent, evidence-led programme framework with country-level diagnostics.
The challenge was not simply to promote English, but to position it responsibly within multilingual systems — aligning FCDO priorities, British Council strategy, and national education reform agendas while respecting linguistic identity and equity concerns.
Implementation
The project adopted a mixed-methods research approach across the three countries. Literature review was combined with stakeholder interviews, inspector focus groups, and policy analysis to examine:
- English language policy direction and reform status
- Curriculum coherence and textbook alignment
- Teacher preparation and CPD systems
- Assessment structures and standards
- Inclusion, technology integration and gender equity
The Tunisia report demonstrates how this approach surfaced both technical and political constraints. Inspectors identified urgent needs in curriculum alignment, SEN training, assessment reform and structured mentoring for novice teachers. Infrastructure gaps and inconsistent reform sequencing were repeatedly highlighted.
In Morocco, analysis of the Strategic Vision and Framework Law revealed strong aspirational language but limited operational roadmaps. Teacher recruitment pressures and uneven implementation of English expansion underscored the need for phased, costed planning.
At regional level, the project synthesised findings into a coherent programme architecture aligned to the IFF Theory of Change (2021), focusing on five interlocking pillars:
- Improving EL educator skills
- Improving EL pedagogy
- System enhancement and alignment
- Policy dialogue and insight
- Equitable access to training
Rather than proposing isolated interventions, the design emphasised synergy between policy dialogue, teacher upskilling, mentoring systems, and materials development. The regional framework mapped activity options across three funding scenarios (current, three-times, five-times investment), allowing flexible scaling according to budget and political appetite.
Crucially, the programme positioned policy dialogue as foundational. Across all three contexts, reform momentum exists but requires structured development planning, stakeholder alignment and monitoring frameworks. The proposal therefore foregrounded three-year development plans, curriculum-textbook alignment support, assessment reform dialogue, and inspector capacity building.
Embedded throughout was a commitment to:
- Inclusion and differentiated learning
- Gender equity
- Technology and AI integration
- Alignment with PISA/TIMSS re-entry (Tunisia)
The result was not a prescriptive blueprint, but a strategic scaffold adaptable to political and funding realities.
Impact
The immediate impact of the project lies in reframing English not as an isolated language initiative, but as a systems-strengthening lever within multilingual reform.
First, it provided ministries with an evidence-based diagnostic of current ELT realities across primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, highlighting where policy ambition diverges from implementation capacity.
Second, it aligned British Council programming more coherently with FCDO strategic priorities, including employability, inclusion, systemic reform and international collaboration. This alignment strengthens the UK’s positioning as a long-term education partner rather than a short-term project provider.
Third, it introduced structured scenario planning across three countries, allowing incremental scaling while preserving coherence. This approach enhances funding resilience and supports sustainable, phased reform.
Most significantly, the project repositioned policy dialogue as central to impact. Inspectors and ministry officials across contexts expressed desire for structured, long-term reform processes rather than fragmented initiatives.
By embedding SMART target development, assessment alignment, mentoring models and materials coherence within a regional framework, the programme enables systemic change rather than surface-level training cycles.
Finally, the work strengthens regional coherence. While Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia differ politically and historically, common challenges in teacher development, assessment reform and curriculum alignment create opportunities for shared MEL frameworks and cross-country learning.
In a region negotiating linguistic identity, economic ambition and educational reform simultaneously, English in a Multilingual Maghreb offers a balanced, context-sensitive pathway: respecting multilingual realities while equipping young people with the English skills increasingly demanded by global labour markets.
It is a strategy not of language replacement, but of multilingual strengthening — positioning English as a tool for opportunity, system improvement and international connection.