National Education: Towards a stalemate?
The curse that has afflicted school education for decades now doesn’t seem to have been lifted yet. With every step forward, we take two (or more!) steps back. The teachers’ strike action launched last Tuesday, and continuing until this Thursday, is sending public schools into a new cycle of turbulence.
On November 02, the sector’s most representative education workers federations (UMT, CDT, FDT, UGTM) are organizing a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Education headquarters in Rabat. This follows their refusal to meet with the Minister, Chakib Benmoussa, on Tuesday, October 24.
The situation is serious, because while previously only the coordination of ex contract teachers held strikes and sit-ins, today they are also the sector’s official spokespersons. They are all united against their supervisory authority. The main motive is the new unified statute for national education staff, approved by the Council of Government on September 27 and published in the Official Gazette on October 09. This status had been validated by the four largest education federations, and was the subject of an agreement on January 14, 2023. Has the Ministry finally failed to keep its promises? «After a two-year process of dialogue, the Ministry finally failed to live up to the delibration principle and has issued the status without consultation. The Ministry didn’t take into account our points of disagreement», explains Mohamed Khoufaifi, deputy SG of the UMT’s national teaching federation. « At the moment, there’s a general sense of frustration. Teachers’ workload has become heavier, with no incentives in return, and a whole program of sanctions has been established «, he added. In particular, the union leader insists on the salary increases that have not been granted, and on the «exclusion» of teachers from the monetary incentives granted to other categories.
Today, instead of restoring confidence for a new beginning, the statute reforming the 2003 statute has signaled the rift between the unions and the Ministry. «At present, the situation is worse than a step backwards. The updated statute is already in the Official Bulletin, which makes a new revision process difficult», says Mohamed Ould Dada, a former director of human resources at the Ministry of Education, and also a former regional academy director. The unions, for their part, are sticking to their guns, which bodes well for a possible stalemate in which schoolchildren will once again be the main casualties.
Ahlam NAZIH
