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On Tuesday, Morocco’s National Education Minister announced that Moroccan students will not be returning to their classrooms before September 2020. The decision, however, fell like a bombshell on private school owners.
To them, the measure comes, as they are not entitled to benefit from the special fund created to manage the current health crisis. In a video posted, Wednesday, on YouTube, the national secretary of the Moroccan association of private schools Taoufik El Alj, denounced what he called a «campaign» targeting private schools.
«This means that several parents have stopped paying their children's tuition fees, even when they benefit from distance learning classes», he denounced.
«The pandemic has not impacted financially many families and parents. However, this category which has been able to save income and increase its purchasing power, has refused to school fees of their children», he argued.
«We were hoping that we would resume studies but the announcement, which was bad news to us, was added to the fact that private schools won’t benefit from the special fund».
Criticizing the Ministry’s decision, the founder of the Gauthier Schools said that «this fund does not belong» to anyone in particular. «It was created by His Majesty the King and now belongs to all the Moroccans who contributed to it», Toufik El Alj said. «Depriving the private education sector from it since March, knowing that parents refuse to pay school fees, is a mistake», he insisted.
«The owners of private schools do not want to aggravate unemployment, but maintain jobs instead», he stressed.
Schools blame Amzazi for burying the sector
El Alj accused, in the same video, Amzazi of having «tightened the belt on a sector which has always been by [his] side». «You destroyed the hopes of students when they dreamed of good grades to go towards higher education and you deprived these parents of this hope», he said.
In a more menacing tone, Toufik El Alj believes that the recent measure «threatens 35,000 jobs in the sector». «With this decision, you condemned the sector to annihilation and you buried it», he regretted.
«If you do not want to pay 2,000 dirhams for three months for these teachers on leave, you will have to compensate those who would lose their jobs for six months and this, not for 43,000 people only but 90,000 or 100,000 of these employees».
While insisting on the fact that the private education sector remains «vulnerable», the speaker wondered about the capacities of public schools. «By announcing that classes will not resume until September and that everyone is admitted to the next grade, what motivation did you leave, Minister, for students to continue distance learning?», he concludes.
On Wednesday, before members of the Education Commission at the House of Representatives, Said Amzazi revealed that 4% of private schools have not respected their commitment by adopting distance learning. The Minister said that his department would take disciplinary actions against these schools.
According to official data, the number of private educational establishments in Morocco is 5,800, which means that 232 school (4%) were not involved in the distance education process.
A few days ago, and before the parliamentary committee on social sectors, the Minister of Labor, Mohamed Amekraz had declared that certain private education schools which benefited from the Special Fund will finally be checked to verify that they meet the criteria of receiving support.
Previously, he had accused schools of having profited excessively from the special fund set up at the King's initiative, by declaring 48,000 employees on temporary work furlough.
