The ministry said it will send inspection bodies to audit and monitor private schools’ student insurance provisions and transparency.
Rabat – Minister of Education Saaid Amzazi sent a notice to private schools in Morocco, calling on administrators to provide parents with student insurance contracts.
Each student is entitled to individual insurance valid for the entirety of the school year to cover any accidents that might happen during school. Parents pay the school for the insurance at the start of the year and schools provide parents with a payment receipt.
The ministry is now requiring schools to share the clauses of the insurance contracts with parents. Parents also have the right to access the insurance contract in order to know what services the student can benefit from, the statement said.
To ensure full compliance with these regulations, the Ministry of Education will send inspection bodies to audit and monitor private schools in Morocco, according to the statement.
Student insurance is subject to a number of regulations, falling within the framework of article 10 of Law 6.00 relating to private education in Morocco.
The regulations stress the principle of transparency in the relationship between the private schools in Morocco and the parents of students enrolled in these institutions, the ministry’s notice stated.
The ministry’s push for private school transparency comes after several parents accused these institutions of greed during the COVID-19 crisis.
Protests against private schools in Morocco arose after parents’ requests for tuition discounts were rejected, despite the pandemic causing an economic recession and unemployment.
In March, three private education organizations wrote a letter to the Head of the Government Saad Eddine El Othmani, asking him “to save the private sector of education during the current crisis of the coronavirus.”
The letter sparked public outrage among social media users, with hundreds condemning the move as “opportunist” and “greedy.”
Following the backlash, one of the organizations, the National League of Private Education (AEPM), apologized to Moroccans for “the misunderstanding.”
