The government drafted law No. 03.24 amending law No. 07.00, which effectively ends teachers’ “contractual positions” dating back to 2016, and grants public employee status to all workers in the national education sector, said Government spokesperson Mustafa Baitas during Thursday’s government weekly briefing.
The government concluded the chapter of formal negotiations on teachers’ strikes, as conversations with union leaders, particularly the Prime Minister’s tripartite committee, showed a steadfast desire to tackle the issue of contractual teachers.
The government will remove the term “fundamental law” which amends Law No. 07.00, and establishes regional academies for education and training, thereby definitively resolving the issue.
The draft decree constitutes part of the Government’s efforts to put into effect the terms of the agreements struck on Dec. 10-26, 2023–between the Government and the educational unions on the issue of educational personnel status–primarily with regard to those connected to the conferral of the title of “public official” to all workers in the national education sector, including those who have been working in regional education and training academies since 2016.
This sorry saga of trying to reinvent the wheel began in 2016, when Morocco first implemented temporary teaching contracts–or contractual employment–in order to address a significant shortage and (purportedly) to reduce class sizes and overcrowding from as many as 50+ students per class to a target of 30 students or fewer.
Teachers have been striking since the start of the educational year, protesting this discriminatory “fundamental law” and calling for increases (greatly needed due to inflation rates not seen domestically in decades), the heretofore unfulfilled promises of bonuses and benefits, and equitable treatment of contractual teachers compared to teachers affiliated with the Ministry.
This implies the closure of the file of those previously known as “academy executives,” or “contractual teachers,” who will now receive remuneration from the public treasury in similar fashion to that of other permanent employees.
Since 2016, contract teachers have consistently and vociferously requested integration into the public sector, but to no avail, sometimes taking to the streets to express their frustrations. Teacher demonstrations increasingly were starting to be characterized by unsettlingly severe confrontations with police officers, and on some occasions even involved sit-ins.
As a result of this disagreement, the government raised the status of regional education and training academy executives in 2019, thereby ”grandfathering in” these professionals appointed between 2016 and 2018. However, the resulting pay scale disparity between classroom teachers and the administrators who oversee them has only fueled discontent.