Hashtag Calling for Lifting of Expiration Date on Baccalaureate Diplomas Goes Viral

Rabat – A hashtag demanding the lifting of the two-year expiration date on Moroccan Baccalaureate diplomas has been taking the internet by storm in Morocco.

As a Moroccan Baccalaureate degree only allows its holder to apply to higher education institutions within a period of two years, the ongoing online campaign is calling for scrapping the legal barriers to allow citizens access to higher education institutions regardless of the two-year deadline.

The hashtag (#الباكالوريا_لا_تموت) Arabic for “#Bacalaureate_Can’t_die” is gaining significant momentum online, with Moroccan internet users calling into question the value of an education degree that requires 12 years of dedication and hard work but is only valid for two years.

Protesting the expiration date on the Baccalaureate degree, one Twitter user wrote: “As long as an individual is alive, they are entitled to the right to education even should they be in the farthest points on the planet, let alone in their country of origin.”

مادام الإنسان حيا فإن من حقه أن يطلب العلم ولو كان في الصين فبالأحرى في جامعة بلاده. قانونيا لا يحق منع من لديه بكالوريا قديمة من متابعة دراسته لكن عمليا كثير من الجامعات تفتح أبوابها حصرا أمام الحاصلين الجدد على الباك ولعمري إن هذا لضرب للحق في التعليم. #الباكالوريا_لا_تموت
— Atimad Salam اعتماد سلام (@atimadsalam) September 17, 2022

Striking a legal argument in support of the demand, the Twitter user wrote: “From a legal perspective, Baccalaureate holders with old degrees should not be denied the right to pursue education, but practically a lot of Moroccan universities only open their door exclusively to recent degree holders, which is in violation of the right to education.”

Prominent figures have also joined the growing calls to scrape the two-year expiration date. A Moroccan Professor and Political Analyst, Omar Jamii, took to Facebook to express his contempt for the current state of university admissions.

“When a Baccalaureate degree holder is denied admission to a Moroccan university with the excuse that it is old, the rejection is in direct violation with chapter 31 of the constitution which states that authorities should facilitate citizens’ access to education,” Jamii wote.

Denying admissions based on the date of Baccalaureate equally “violates chapter 33 of the constitution that states that authorities should work to facilitate young people’s access to education, and the means to fulfill their potentials,” he concluded.