Rabat - Moroccan Minister of Higher Education Lahcen Daoudi has come under fire over “Lawhati” (my tablet), a program to make tablets available for university staff and students at low prices.
Rabat – Moroccan Minister of Higher Education Lahcen Daoudi has come under fire over “Lawhati” (my tablet), a program to make tablets available for university staff and students at low prices.
Students across Morocco have expressed dismay at the tablets’ high prices, which they cannot afford. The program was launched on Monday with the aim of providing tablets for college students at up to a 30 percent discount from market prices.
Student took to social media in order to express their anger against the disappointing prices and called for the boycott of these tablets.
Daoudi reacted harshly to the criticism, challenging students to find the same tablets in the market with lower prices.
“To whomever claims that the prices of the tablets we are offering are high, please bring me the same tablets with lower prices and I am ready to change the prices,” Lahcen Daoudi told Hespress.
“To whoever alleges that there are cheaper tablets in the market, I am not forcing you to buy the tablets offered in the program, go and purchase other tablets from the market and don’t cause us headache,” he added.
The Minister went so far as to claim that certain tech companies are behind this uproar, since the Ministry didn’t include their products within the program.
The Ministry of Higher Education was expecting to offer tablets to a total of 2.3 million students, professors, and administrators. However, it is unlikely to reach this objective amid the backlash.
Edited by Timothy Filla