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By Omar Bihmidine
Morocco World News
Sidi Ifni, Morocco, May 1, 2012
Cell nine teachers who have been in scale 9 for so long without any upgrading have taken to the street on May 1st to call on the Ministry of Education to immediately integrate them into scale 10. Seizing the opportunity of Labour Day, these teachers persevere in striking on the grounds that they have been more marginalized than their counterparts, teachers who have been upgraded with their diplomas not long ago. Among the top demands of the category in question is to remove the meager scale 9 once and for all.
” Cell nine teachers”, named after meager scale nine, came into being towards the end of last year when the principal unions in charge of all Moroccan teachers had already proved uncooperative, heedless of teachers’ concerns, and non-militant. With a number of previous strikes last years and the beginning of this school year, cell nine teachers cling to their struggle against the impoverishing working situations and go on to demonstrate more resistance to the fallacies and rumors lately spread to undermine their efforts in bringing themselves their dignity.
As a sign of the dignity, these teachers believe that being upgraded to a higher scale that at the very least catches up with the soaring necessities of living nowadays will surely grant them a respectable and well-deserved reputation. In different reports launched on newspapers and other news outlets, the representative of teachers pointed out that they are victims of the decisions the Education Ministry has taken in the past few years.
A large number of teachers, for instance, have been serving the noble profession for more than twenty years, but they are still paid the same, impoverishing salaries, scale nine. Some of them are already tired of receiving the same thing in return for their noble work for nearly two decades or even more. These teachers believe that the long periods they have spent teaching in their classes would suffice to deserve an upgrade.
It is worth noting that in the reports on the issue, many reasonable equations have been made and mentioned to draw the ministry’s attention to cell nine teachers’ grave situation. Among them is the equation, confirmed by the ministry itself, that Baccalaureate plus three years of studying leads to scale 10. Teachers, known as August three and with three years after Baccalaureate, benefited from the equation when the Education Ministry appointed them as teachers with scale ten in 2009.
Yet, with regard to teachers with two years at university plus a training year, they have been appointed as teachers with scale nine. The flimsy excuse the ministry provides is that in 2009, there was a dire need of teachers, and as long as they hold a B.A., they are already entitled to be graded in scale 10. Victims of the decision, cell nine teachers in particular, went enraged at this disproportionate distribution of scales, and had no choice but to go on more and more strikes.
The plain contradiction hinted at here is that the ministry did a disservice to a great number of teachers when they are appointed as teachers with scale nine despite the fact that they too spent two years at university and a training year. That is, three years after Baccalaureate in total. This contradiction, among many others, has legalized the right of cell nine teachers to go on strike, be it on May 1st or at another time.
