Mother and education professional, educational psychologist, the author of this letter reacts to the latest measures taken by the Ministry of Education for the start of the 2020-2021 school year. This letter, the author of which remains anonymous, has been circulating for a few days on social networks. We publish it as is, because it makes an objective and constructive criticism of the teaching methods adopted by the ministry.
Mr Amzazi, Minister of National Education,
I do not know if this letter will reach you and despite the certainty that it is in vain, I cannot help writing it. I write it as a mother but also as an education professional, being a trained educational psychologist. I am French and I have lived in this beautiful country for 10 years. I still have a lot to learn from him but I know enough to be particularly attached to him and you can assure that he deserves better than what you offer him.
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The latest directives from your ministry are inapplicable, illusory, cautious and give all of your citizens the feeling of having to assume the responsibilities incumbent on you. I am obviously aware of the almost insoluble problem that you must solve given the current situation, and that we must all contribute to the efforts to be made, but despite the imperfection of the possible solutions, you cannot deviate from rigor, from the clarity and consistency they demand. However, and with all due respect, the ones you are presenting are completely devoid of them. I will explain myself by taking up the main points of your statements.
You tell us that: “We have also taken into account the experiences of other countries” to develop this form of distance education. Which countries are you talking about? Do they have an education system similar to that of Morocco with the same particularities? I hope so, Mr. Minister, because inspirations from elsewhere are necessary, it is obvious, but they lead to an excess of pretension when they are not subject to the reality on the ground. Perhaps we do not have the same reality, Mr. Minister, so allow me to develop mine on the Moroccan education system, a system in which I have been working for 10 years.
The public school is abandoned in favor of an ever-expanding and more expensive offer of private establishments. These same establishments operate as businesses, setting their own specifications, foreign missions being no exception, capable of cutting off access to the product if the customer does not pay.
According to your 2018 figures, 1 in 7 students is educated in the private sector, which represents 33% of schools. 1 in 7 children is therefore a customer before being a pupil. And let’s not hide anything Mr. Minister, we know that the other 6 also dream of the status of client as being a student in a public establishment is complicated. High rate of teacher absenteeism, lack of human and financial resources, overcrowded classes, endless war on the language to be preferred for such or such teaching and I am sad as you must be for this still long list. As long as public schools are not a national priority with substantial investments, private education will continue to transform our students into customers with an after-sales service that is too often deplorable. The peculiarity of our education system is therefore rarely comparable with another country and the inspiration for solving problems must be taken from those who have this very particular reality on the ground on a daily basis.
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You then say concerning still distance, I quote to you “40% of the pupils, in particular from the disadvantaged areas and the rural world, did not follow. We said to ourselves that we had to mix face-to-face and distance learning, giving families a choice ”. Excuse me, Minister, but in vain I read you several times, I do not understand. What do you mean ? That the 40% who did not follow now will half follow since you say that 100% of face-to-face is excluded? Are you saying that it’s satisfactory that 40% of your students are wasted half the time, at best? And if all the parents opted for the face-to-face meeting thus reaching the rate of 100% that you refuse, how will the selection be made? According to what criteria? Are there not discriminatory risks? How can we prefer one student to another for their access to school? Explain to me, Minister, because what I currently understand scares me. I cannot imagine that you will make the choice to leave children without school and that you will find this solution acceptable by offering it to us, parents.
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You also say that we must reason in “co-education. Success and learning also depend on parents ”. Either Mr. Minister. But just a number. 32% illiteracy in Morocco. Granted, this percentage has fallen by 2/3 over half a century and we can only applaud this splendid progress. But the rate remains high. How many parents of school children are unable to take on this beautiful idea of co-education? And for the others Mr. Minister, how do parents who work and cannot be co-educators? What about those who have several children at different levels? I am an educational psychologist Mr. Minister, the main part of my work is to adapt the school to the child, I studied for that, I am trained for that, I can tell you, your proposal is inapplicable for the large majority of families. Developing would require several chapters, but I can caricature. The best doctor can become the most incompetent when it comes to caring for a family member. You cannot ask parents to be their children’s doctor. They are fully educators, they are not teachers. Questions to which you must answer Mr. Minister, the citizens that we are cannot choose between feeding their children or staying at home to be co-educators of a teaching which we do not necessarily master.
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As for the hourly rates you mentioned, here again I am lost. You talk about 30 hours per week of lessons for each student with 50% face-to-face and 50% distance (at the rate of 5 hours per day). Some students will therefore come on certain days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) to make room for others on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Here again, Minister, how are you going to do the division? Who will be entitled to which days? According to what criteria? And a family with several children who do not have the same days, how does it organize itself to manage transport, work and school at home as co-educators?
You specify your educational improvements made by indicating that a distance learning course will last 30 minutes. But will the face-to-face lessons also last 30 minutes? How will the teachers be able to be both in class and in front of their computer? Or maybe you’ll split their day? And 30 minutes of lessons represent 10 different lessons for the quota of 5 hours that you announce. 10 lessons? Really ? Words fail me so much the inconsistency of your figures only allows biased calculations and that’s without counting the dubious educational interest of the 30 minutes of lessons. He would be a student, we would ask him to review his copy, Minister. You know that is inapplicable without a discriminatory policy that you ask to apply to establishments, implicitly. Education cannot be discriminatory, it is already unequal. That would be signing his death, you are the guarantor, you cannot kill him.
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One last point, Minister, concerning the incomprehensible figures. You exclude equipping the most disadvantaged students with tablets so that they can follow distance education because this represents a significant cost that you quantify. 1,000 dirhams per tablet for 2,000,000 children. A total of 2 billion dirhams is huge I hear. But I wonder. A country like Morocco is not able to equip itself with tablets at less than 1000 dhs for its poorest children? I can’t believe it. You know that you can find it on a Moroccan e-commerce site at 600 dhs so a large order from the Moroccan government would divide the cost by 2!
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And the billions of donations collected during this crisis, are all the envelopes exhausted? I am caricature and joking Mr. Minister, forgive me, in these heavy times we sometimes allow lightness. But I think that you underestimate your strengths and that it is urgent to find solutions to this mercantile problem when it comes to the rights and equality of your citizens. To sweep it as you do is not admissible for your citizens. Morocco is a country of mutual aid, we were able to verify it again during the confinement, how then could a part of the population accept the exclusion of another part? Of an exclusion by the child, moreover.
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I think it’s time to wrap up and give your time back. I would not ask you the question of compulsory school insurance, which no one mentions. If an accident happens at home during distance learning lessons, will it be effective? I would not ask you who will be responsible for the absenteeism which must appear on the school records, nor how all the students with disabilities, followed by an avs (school life assistant, editor’s note) or not, beneficiaries of arrangements specials, will be able to continue their education. You already have so many unanswered questions, Minister. And you must answer them because it is neither for parents nor for schools to bear the responsibility for the various educational policies and even less to lead them. They will follow you, we will follow you if only you know where to go. In which case, ask us, we may have some ideas.
Thank you for your attention and for sharing my concerns, our concerns. It is the future of our children that we are talking about. This is the future of Morocco. We cannot accept approximations, inequalities, choices that are not.
Rest assured, Minister, of my perfect consideration and allow me to wish you all the courage your mission requires.
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