Mauritania

After achieving independence in the mid-1960s, Mauritania began experimenting with ways to mold its educational system to the specific needs of its students. In 1966 the government passed legislation that mandated schools to offer instruction in both the French and the Arabic languages. A similar bill passed early in the 1980s required that instruction be offered in the languages of Pulaar, Azayr, and Wolof. A plan conceived in the late 1970s to completely eliminate French in the schools was dissolved by the end of the following decade after vehement resistance by Mauritanians who already spoke French.