Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – Students in Morocco’s prestigious ECS preparatory classes, which prepare students for entrance exams to top business schools, are protesting for equal access to engineering schools.
The strike, which began on Thursday and continues today, highlights concerns about the lack of opportunity for a number of talented students to pursue their desired fields of study.
The protesting students say the main driver of their movement is the disparity between public preparatory classes in Morocco and their private or French counterparts.
Students in public ECS classes are limited to choosing between “applied mathematics,” considered less challenging, and “advanced mathematics,” viewed as more rigorous.
This limitation disadvantages public ECS students compared to their peers in private or French programs who can choose between both levels of mathematics.
Read also: Moroccan Healthcare in Crisis as Students, Professionals Join Nationwide Protests
While private ECS graduates can apply to a variety of engineering schools, public ECS graduates are only eligible for two public business schools : the National School of Business and Management (ENCG) and the Higher Institute of Commerce and Business Administration (ISCAE).
This limitation excludes them from prestigious institutions like the National School of Computer Science and Systems Analysis (ENSIAS), the Mohammadia School of Engineering (EMI), and the National School of Administration (ENSA), even though private and French-medium ECS graduates can pursue these very same schools.
The strike, initiated by first-year students at the Omar Al Khayyam Center and supported by seven other ECS centers across Morocco, demonstrates the students’ commitment to securing equal opportunities.
With extensive media coverage of the protests, the students hope for their message to be heard by the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education, Training of Executives, and Scientific Research.
For now, they say their plan is to continue their movement of collective defiance until their demands are met.
The striking students argue that they deserve to have access to the same opportunities as their peers in private and French-speaking ECS, saying that their fields of study are crucial for Morocco’s future in an increasingly globalized and mercilessly competitive world.
They believe that the education system can level the playing field and empower talented public school students to pursue their passions in STEM by allowing public ECS graduates to choose their math level and expanding their eligibility for engineering schools.
