The exams were postponed after most medical and pharmacy students boycotted them, in light of the crisis between them on the one hand, and the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation on the other hand, against the backdrop of a number of points of disagreement, including reducing the duration of training to six years instead of seven.
Thus, on Thursday, September 5, 2024, Le360 went to the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Casablanca, and monitored the atmosphere of the first day of exams, which were boycotted, once again, by a large number of students.
The atmosphere of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Casablanca on the first day of the September 5 exams
A source at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy told Le360 that “the majority of students have continued to boycott the exams, with the exception of a few individuals who took the September 5, 2024 exams, most of whom are foreign students.”
The same source added that “most of the foreign students who passed the exams benefit from university scholarships, and therefore they are afraid of losing them,” adding that “most of their Moroccan colleagues, who attended the September 5 exams, complied with the instructions of their parents, who asked them to pass the fall session, to avoid the failure scenario.”
A source from the National Committee of Medical and Pharmacy Students in Morocco confirmed, in a statement to Le360, on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, that “maintaining the exam schedule before reaching a solution that satisfies both parties and responding to the students’ demands makes the boycott, in various cities, a means to achieve goals.”
The spokesman criticized what he considered to be the “lack of neutrality” in the parliamentary mediation led by the government majority team in the House of Representatives to find a solution to the file, adding: “The parliamentary mediation should have brought visions closer together instead of criticizing the National Committee for Medical Students because it consults students on small and big issues,” warning of what he described as “an attempt to exploit the fathers and mothers of students to break student unity and also to delude students into achieving some demands, including scheduling two sessions for the first semester and the second semester and reviewing the duration of training.”
The spokesman confirmed: “We conducted surveys in which students participated and concluded that the exams will be boycotted.”
The Dialogue Committee of the majority groups in the House of Representatives announced, on Sunday, September 1, 2024, “to all medical and pharmacy students that, as a culmination of the mediation and dialogue process with the Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, it has received the ministry’s responses in this regard.”
The parliamentary committee noted, according to an informed source, that it “will ensure that the ministry’s commitments declared in the meeting in the House of Representatives on July 10, 2024 are followed up, especially with regard to lifting the sanctions issued against students and their representatives, and canceling the zero point, in addition to programming two sessions for the first semester and the second semester, as well as working to ensure the time frame for training for the 2019-2024 cohorts according to the pedagogical formulas in effect and adopted by the competent committees.”
The parliamentary committee called on medical and pharmacy students to “interact positively with the proposal of the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, and trust the institutions,” stressing that it “will follow up on the implementation of the ministry’s obligations to ensure the interests of students and achieve the best interest of the nation.”
The majority components had put a set of proposals on the table of the Minister of Higher Education to end the crisis, including a call to organize exams that would constitute, for students who boycotted last season, two opportunities for each sixth.
She also suggested that suspensions and positive points for failure be cancelled, while maintaining the decision to reduce the years of training to 6 years according to the latest formula approved by the government.
On Monday, July 22, 2024, medical and pharmacy students continued their boycott of the spring semester exams. After boycotting the regular semester exams, most of them later agreed to boycott the remedial semester exams.
Le360 went to the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Casablanca on Monday, July 22, 2024, and took a group of photos that showed the absence of students from the college’s surroundings and the absence of the exam atmosphere in general.
The first day of the remedial session.. the percentage of boycott and the atmosphere
It is noteworthy that a large number of medical and pharmacy students failed to take the second semester exams for the current academic year (regular session), which the Ministry of Higher Education had scheduled to start on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
In numbers, the exam boycott rate exceeded 90%, according to what was confirmed by the National Committee for Medical, Dental and Pharmacy Students in Morocco.
The committee said that this percentage, which reached 94% in all public medical and pharmacy colleges in Morocco, was issued based on the results of the general assemblies and the national vote, as “support for the student will to continue the boycott, in response to the set of arbitrary decisions that have not been reversed and the continued extortion through them.”
Almost complete boycott of Casablanca medical school exams
Students of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Oujda boycott the spring semester exams
Diabo: The second day of medical exams… an “exceptional” atmosphere at the Faculty of Casablanca
Faculty of Medicine Oujda. le360
Edited by Abeer Al Omrani
On 09/05/2024 at 12:12
