By Omar Bihmidine
By Omar Bihmidine
Morocco World News
Sidi Ifni, October 4, 2012
Since the previous government’s decision to set-up a budget for providing extra compensation to teachers for working in far-away areas, teachers have been calling on the Ministry of Education to implement the initiative for once and for all.
Among the main reasons why the government proposed this plan is to guarantee dignified working conditions in remote areas for new teachers and to motivate them to stay there for as long as possible, particularly at a time when teachers in such areas seize every opportunity to move elsewhere and vacate their place of work.
Yet, the government is still divided over the areas in which the extra compensation should be provided. At the moment, teachers from Zagora and Sidi Ifni in southern Morocco threaten to go on strike if they are not listed among these most remote areas.
Nearly all education unions insist that 700 MAD must be granted as soon as possible and that the controversy over the criteria for identifying these remote areas eligible for the extra compensation must be settled.
In response, Mohamed El Ouafa, in collaboration with education unions and provinces, has promised to unveil the remote areas that will benefit. According to some syndicates, it is likely that the lists disclosing the beneficiary areas for additional compensation might bring about more strikes this year.
