maintenance and spread: French in Algeria," said that as of 2007, "Arabization is either complete or almost complete" in the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and registry offices in Algerian town halls. He also said that the Ministry of Education had been affected to a "lesser extent." Official documents of ministries which had not been affected partially or fully to Arabization are often written in French, and Arabic translations of these documents are provided when needed. Benrabah said that as of 2007 "the use of French in a number of higher domains has diminished since the colonial era when the language held an unassailable position in the media, education, government, and administration." In 1968 the Algerian government decreed that all civil positions use the Arabic language. In 1990 the government ruled that Arabic is the only language to be used in institutions and public service, and imprisonment was a penalty for violating this law. Around 1997 the Algerian government had passed laws prohibiting officials from speaking any language other than Arabic publicly. The government laws called for a fine for officials who prepared government documents not in Arabic. The government mandated that all textbooks and lectures must be Arabic, with French ones being phased out. The laws also stated that all television broadcasts must be in Arabic only. In 1997, Slimane Chikh, the Minister of Education, said that French needed to be phased out because it was preventing Arabic from reaching prominence and because it was leading Algerians away from English, the primary international language of commerce, computers, and science. Of the documents submitted by the Algerian government to the sessions of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names and the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, all were in French, and the government used French in its participation in almost all of the conferences associated with these groups. Languages used in Algerian education As of 2007, Arabization has mainly affected primary and secondary education, while in university education French retained a higher social prestige and class and is the language used in scientific studies. As of 2002, French was taught as a foreign language from the fourth year of primary school until the final year of secondary school. French is used in the high school level in the exact sciences, the medical sciences, and technology studies. Some specialized fields offer courses