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Rabat- A communiqué of the Ministry of National Education shocked social media users when it recently announced that it will allow first and second year middle schoolers to pass with grades as low as 7.5 out of 20.
The communiqué, released on June 28, entails that students with far below the average grade (on the curve) of 10 will pass the 2017-2018 academic year into the next middle school levels in the regions of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima. Many Moroccans believe the move is bad news for the quality of Morocco’s public education.
The release reads: “At the requests of parent-teacher associations and parents of students in the region, we are honored to announce that the baseline of the [passing mark] will be no less than 7.5/20.”
Some Facebook users expressed shock and condemned the ministry’s decision to lower the passing score in order to meet students’ levels, instead of helping students raise their educational level to meet the average educational level, at the very least.
The students’ parents are also subject to criticism, as they are responsible for their children’s education.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education has been taking strict measures against private schools that inflate students’ grades, especially those in the baccalaureate level, as shown in the huge disparities between their continuous grades and their baccalaureate results and regional grades.
