Sana Al-Qowaiti-Rabat

"Our basic demand is to return to official time," says Mohammed Farraji, one of the Moroccan students who took part in the protests against the government's decision to add an hour to normal time (GMT + 1).

Faraji's secondary school joined the protest movement on the second day of its launch, although some students joined their classes.

Protests began in Casablanca and Rabat last Wednesday to return to school after the school holiday, before expanding to various parts of the kingdom, including schools in rural areas.

The students relied on social networking sites to identify points of convergence in the public squares and in the educational departments.

The protests culminated last Monday when thousands of students from the neighboring city of Sala joined the students of the capital in front of the parliament building. They chanted anti-injustice songs, slogans and slogans against the government demanding change of conditions in the country instead of changing the clock.

Mohamed Faraji explained to Al-Jazeera Net that the change in school time confused them and caused them special psychological and study problems, and it was adopted suddenly and after two months of regularity study. He pointed to the meetings held by educational officials with students listened to their views and concerns about the new timing.

Faraji did not deny the use of "outsiders and unknowns" to protest the students, and try to drag them into riots and arguments or other political issues.

Part of the slogans of the protesters (the island)

The deterioration of education
The chaos caused by some "outsiders" has led security forces to carry out arbitrary arrests of some of Faraji's colleagues who were demanding that the clock be dropped to be released later.

Local media described the protests with multiple headlines, mostly asking whether this was a resurgence of the student movement, culminating in the 1960s and 1980s.

Demonstrations of anger against daylight saving time took their natural and peaceful course in some cities, and some of them turned into fights between students who had stoned them.

Some broke public property while others trampled on the national flag and burned it in front of the parliament, as well as slogans that insulted Prime Minister Saad Eddin Othmani in obscene language that Moroccans never heard of protesters against state officials and publicly.

The students also stopped the tramway between Rabat and the neighboring city of Salé, which is frequented by thousands every day.

These behaviors led to a state of shock among citizens, and most commentators agreed that what had happened was indicative of the deterioration of education.

Education Minister Said Amazazi blamed "people who have nothing to do with the educational system" and told parliamentarians that they encourage students not to attend school and go out on the street.

Protests of students reached parliament (island)

Filter accounts
The minister explained that the directors of the regional academies have conducted important communication campaigns in schools to ensure the safety and security of students after the adoption of the new timing.

Said Said Kashani, president of the Confederation of Associations of parents of students and Nooruddin Akouri, president of the Federation of parents associations of students to hold meetings with officials in the ministry in order to arrive at a timely appropriate to the specificities of each.

They expressed their dissatisfaction with leaving school for days and engaging in protests despite open dialogue between representatives of families and officials.

"The students expressed their refusal to adopt Greenwich Mean Time (GMT + 1) and we tried to explain to them that it was a strategic choice for the country," al-Akouri told Al Jazeera.net. "The school is not the right place to discuss such decisions.

Expulsion of policy
While Akouri called for the need to keep politics away from school, Kashani said the general atmosphere had helped these protests spread to schoolchildren. "If we were in a normal situation and the political atmosphere was comfortable and regular these protests did not occur."

Political analyst Omar al-Sharqawi described the protests as "unorganized and spontaneous", saying that the resultant behavior such as touching the national symbols is not commensurate with the issue of protest, and represents an audacity that has never been a social movement. But he called for dealing with them with a kind of leniency and flexibility given the age group represented by the protesters.

Criticizing those trying to recruit protesting students for freedom of expression in order to settle scores with the state, al-Sharqawi wondered why "the protests did not spread to one million and 100,000 schoolchildren in private schools?" Pointing to the weakness of the mediation institutions of political parties, unions and civil society in communicating with students.

Since 1967, the Kingdom has officially adopted Greenwich. In recent years, successive governments have been adding an hour temporarily during daylight saving time, but at the end of last October the government adopted permanent change permanently, asserting that it serves the interests of the country and its people.