Medical students in Morocco boycotting the exams .. A white year looming in the horizon

Magda Ait Lektaoui - Rabat

The streets in front of Morocco's medical schools were empty except for police vehicles, riot police and ambulances, after some 18,000 medical, pharmacists and dentists decided to boycott the country's pre-spring exams.

On June 10, when the Ministries of Health and Higher Education set a date for the commencement of the second semester exams, thousands of medical students had other decisions, preferring to meet outside the walls of their colleges or travel to the cities from which they came.

Medical and pharmacy colleges are spread over six major cities: Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Fez, Oujda, Agadir and Tangier.

While officials at the National Coordination of Medical Students in Morocco confirmed to Al-Jazeera Net the success of the step of 100% boycott of exams in all faculties, Mohammad Al-Taheri, Director of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, said that the vision will only be clarified after the exams expire on 19 June .

"The exams are an academic rather than an administrative issue, and the picture will not be completed until after the completion of the examination period and the holding of the deliberative committees," Tahiri said.

Blank stands

The boycott of medicine and pharmacy students for exams was not the result of the moment, preceded by a comprehensive boycott of theoretical and practical lessons lasted about three months, during which they took to the street repeatedly through marches and vigils, attended by thousands of students from different cities.

The protestors denounced what they described as "poor quality training" in overcrowding, lack of absorption of training centers for student numbers and a shortage of university professors who were enrolled in private medical schools while calling for "fortification of the public university".

"Ten weeks have seen unsuccessful dialogue rounds between the National Coordination of Medical Students and the Ministries of Health and Higher Education, which have resulted in a boycott of examinations, which makes the university year on the road to the unknown," said Ayat Ghuti, head of the medical students' office in Rabat.

She pointed out that the success of the boycott in all faculties of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry is evidence of the justice and legitimacy of the demands of medical students, especially the quality of training, explaining that "the problems of continuous training can no longer be postponed."

In the wind

Despite the attempts by the ministries of health and higher education to find a suitable solution to the file, by issuing a joint communiqué confirming their commitment to take 14 decisions that respond to some of the demands, the step did not meet the expectations of the coordination members and did not respond to their aspirations.

The two ministries have pledged to work on rehabilitating, expanding and improving the therapeutic training spaces, and setting up their dental centers in conjunction with the faculties of dentistry in Rabat and Casablanca.

Higher education and health promised to facilitate the acquisition of materials and equipment necessary for the implementation of applied programs and remedial training in dentistry in the best of circumstances.

For his part, Mohammed Yahya, chairman of the Pharmacy Students Council in Rabat, pointed out that the government's promises were loose and inaccurate, prompting doctors of the future to sacrifice the most important things with the awareness and conviction that amounted to boycotting exams and risking a university year. A warmer white year than a black future. "

Parents protest

Not only did the protest against medical students and pharmacists, but went to their parents who went to the colleges on the morning of exams, at a time when the head of the medical students' office in Rabat that "parents are more than suffering the medical student day by day."

"Our children have not been following their theoretical and practical lessons since mid-March," said Fatima G., the mother of a medical student in the capital. "What's the exam for the spring exams?" Denouncing the procrastination of the ministries concerned with the sector and their decision to conduct examinations in these poor conditions.

The head of the Pharmacy Students Council in Rabat stressed that the students of medicine and pharmacy do not mind returning to their laboratories and laboratories at the earliest opportunity, provided the two ministries respond to their demands for good training and protect the university, according to a clear agreement.

"It is easy to lose two or three years to bear the guilt of future generations of doctors and pharmacists who will accuse us of failing to defend our rights and rights."