Rabat – On the occasion of World Teachers’ Day, October 5, Morocco’s Ministry of Education shared its plans to integrate contract teachers into the public sector.
In a letter addressed to Moroccan schools and teachers, Minister of Education Chakib Benmoussa said the country is set to adopt a unified national education system that will integrate teachers from the Regional Academies of Education and Training (AREF) into civil service.
After seven months of social dialogue between five teachers’ unions and the ministry, Benmousa says that the contract teachers in Morocco can now enjoy the “same rights, benefits, and career paths” as their peers in the civil service.
The minister added that the principle of regionalization remains relevant only for the recruitment processes.
The integration of contract teachers follows the adoption of the 2022-2026 roadmap for public institutions, says the minister’s letter, adding that the reform strategy focuses on improving the quality of education and protecting the status of teachers in an effort to rebuild trust in public schools.
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As the ministry plans to celebrate the education profession in coordination with the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Promotion of Social Works of Education and Training, the public body stated it is set to pay the two-year delayed promotions by the end of 2022 with a budget of MAD 2 billion ($181 million).
The case of contract teachers
Recent protests led by contract teachers have made headlines worldwide, but it all started six years ago.
In 2016, Morocco’s Ministries of Education and Finance signed a joint agreement to hire teachers under a contract to address the teachers’ shortage. Every year since then, the government has hired teachers from regional academies under one-year renewable contracts.
However, the contract teachers have claimed that they were forced to agree to “unfair” working conditions as they had no alternative.
“Our demands are simple. We are only seeking our legitimate rights as teachers,” Imane, a Fez native working on a contract in Tangier told MWN in 2021.
“The difference between a contracted teacher and those working in the public sector is huge,” she claimed, pointing out that they receive lower monthly wages ranging between MAD 5,457 ($500) and MAD 5,894 ($540).
Denouncing the differentiation between their services and those of other civil servants, the contract teachers have conducted a series of talks with the government that often reached a dead end, prompting more protests and strikes.
The teachers have accused the government on several occasions of deploying police brutality to silence their calls.
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