Medical students’ parents demonstrated before the parliament building in Rabat on Saturday evening, denouncing the situation in Morocco as medical students have been on strike for months and might face “a blank year” following the boycott of their final exams a few weeks ago.
The bone of contention between the government and the students erupted when the government decided to reduce the number of years of study from seven to six.
The protesters called on the government to assume its responsibilities and resolve the crisis urgently while emphasizing the need to improve the conditions of medical and pharmacy faculties.
The government and students are accusing each other of being responsible for exacerbating the crisis and spreading tensions within the medical and pharmacy faculties, while public opinion is increasingly concerned about the future of an entire generation of doctors and pharmacists.
The government blames the students for “intransigence and insistence” for boycotting the exams even though the basis of the boycott is the implementation of the new structure of the medical training system starting from the next academic year. The current situation threatens both the student’s future and the health system in Morocco, including reconsidering the penalties taken against some students after passing the exams and recovering their missed periods of hospital training.
The students accuse the government of “indifference” and not responding to their demands, to revert the decision to reduce the years of study from seven to six, reconsider the training system, and improve study conditions.
The students are escalating their protests, emphasizing their determination to continue boycotting exams until their demands are met.
The government previously announced, through its official spokesperson Mustapha Baïtas, that the spring session will open on June 26, 2024, followed by the remedial session before the end of August 2024, with the first-semester remedial session exams scheduled for September 2024.
“Penalties will be redetermined in response to the initiative to pass the exams on June 26,” Baïtas said, adding that the interrupted hospital internships will be made up from the next academic year, and the zero point on the transcript will be replaced by the point obtained in the remedial course in the first semester.
The Justice and Development Party (PJD) parliamentary group submitted an urgent request to discuss the issue of “saving the academic year in the faculties of medicine and pharmacy” during the weekly session devoted to oral questions in the House of Representatives.
This request comes in the wake of the student’s boycott of these faculties and exams that began on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, which raised the concern of Moroccan public opinion.
According to Morocco’s National Committee of Medical, Dental, and Pharmacy Students, the test boycott was a huge success, with over 94% of students participating.
The administration responded to the situation by publishing various communiqués and meeting with student representatives, but these attempts failed to alleviate tensions and persuade the students involved to resume their studies and pass the tests.