SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Unlike Cyrenaica, where educational development under the B.M.A. was modelled upon the system operating in Egypt, that adopted in Tripolitania at the start of the British Administration in 1943 had no such correlation. Instead the former Italo-Arab Schools merely continued with the Arabic Language replacing Italian without the support of modem textbooks, cuiriculum or examinations. Also unlike Cyrenaica, where the British Government assured the population that there would be no return of Italian rule, Tripolitania continued until the mid-forties under the expectation that Italian sovereignty might be returned to the territory. Consequently, the B.M.A. was unable to adopt a similar pattern of educational development for Tripolitania until the future of the territory was clear. The final adoption of the Egyptian Curriculum in 1948 came too late to effectively enable the educational system operating in Egypt to be put into practice in the territory before Independence in 1951. Nonetheless, despite political uncertainty, inadequate resources of money and teachers, the B.M.A., in Tripolitania was able to make significant progress between 1943 and 1951 in reversing the neglect of Arab education which it had inherited from the former Italian regime. In the latter respect, it more than fulfilled the requirements made of it by International Law, despite the severe budgetary restraints imposed by the policy of Care and Maintenance, which restricted its role in education as in other areas of activity.