Protesting teachers have sustained “serious injuries” resulting from riot police “violent intervention” in Rabat.
Rabat – In an overnight protest Wednesday night, April 24, police attempted to disperse protesting teachers with water cannons and batons, leaving dozens of the contractual teachers “seriously” wounded.
65 contractual teachers sustained “serious injuries.”
A member of the national commission of the National Coordination of Teachers Forced into Contracts (CNPCC), Abdessamad El Amrani, said riot police met protests with violence, that not only left 65 in “serious conditions” but also sent some to intensive care.
El Amrani added that most of teachers’ injuries were on their hands, backs, and legs due to the strong force of the water cannons and the batons.
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The incident came amid contractual teachers’ call for three days of marches in response to the Ministry of Education, which declared it would “suspend dialogue with teachers’ representatives” until striking teachers return to work.
The protesting teachers have accused the education ministry of failing to abide by the agreements negotiated in an April 13 meeting.
Contractual teachers said they would extend their strike until April 25 or more.
The education ministry and teacher’s representatives have held several negotiation meetings since February 20 when the street marches began, but they have not yet come to a mutual understanding.
Read also: Morocco’s Contractual Teachers: Each Protest Gets Bigger As More Join Us
The teachers have threatened a “blank year” of not returning to work for 12 months in protest of the ministry.
Contractual teachers argue the education ministry does not put them on an equal footing with permanent teachers. They have been agitating for the abolishment of the fixed-term contract, some terms of which do not grant them the same level of job security as public sector teachers and to be hired into the public sector.
Although the ministry promised it would abandon its contract scheme and later decided to amend some terms in the contract, all its attempts to find a middle ground with teachers have failed.
Teachers consider the education ministry’s offers “patchy” and blame it for the consequences.
