Rabat– The Moroccan Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research, and Innovation has announced measures to restore normal academic operations at the faculties of medicine and pharmacy.
In its statement, the ministry confirmed that pharmacy students who completed their first-semester exams on September 5, 2024, will be allowed to continue their studies through a special exam session.
Additionally, absent pharmacy students will be permitted to take all required exams for the 2023-2024 academic year in a single special session for each semester, to be completed by the end of November 2024.
The ministry stated that “zero scores” will be eliminated for pharmacy students who boycotted exams and replaced with scores from the special sessions.
Exam results will be reviewed to facilitate registration for subsequent years, considering scores from both regular and special sessions.
The ministry confirmed that internships will not be required for registration and will be scheduled later, adhering to the full timeframe and completion criteria.
The ministry also announced the start of the 2024-2025 academic year: which was Monday, September 23, 2024, for new first-year students, and Monday, October 14, 2024, for students in other years.
These measures follow various mediation efforts by the government, deans, and academic staff to restore normalcy at the faculties of medicine and pharmacy. The ministry expressed gratitude to academic researchers and administrative staff for their efforts to compensate for the lost pedagogical time due to the student boycott, ensuring the quality of education remains intact.
Meanwhile, professors at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Casablanca condemned the violent intervention by police forces against the peaceful sit-in outside the faculty in Rabat. They emphasized that such violence would only exacerbate the situation and assured that they would ensure students could pass the extraordinary sessions under suitable pedagogical conditions.
On Wednesday night, police forces violently intervened to disperse a sit-in held by medical students outside the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rabat. Accompanied by their parents, hundreds of students were prevented from setting up tents or parking nearby, prompting them to relocate their sit-in to a nearby street where they staged a massive demonstration.
The violent police response to the demonstrations continued today outside the faculty and Ibn Sina University Hospital, resulting in the arrest of four interns and resident medical students who were attempting to show solidarity with the other protesters.
