Private school ‘greed’ reaches parliament
Heba Press / Rabat
As the start of the school year approaches, the high cost of books and school supplies is once again being discussed, amid conflicting reports about how much the price of books, notebooks and school supplies will increase this year.
The parliamentary team of the “Progress and Socialism” party sent a written question to the Minister of National Education, in which he stressed that there were “sharp increases in the prices of private schools”, because “most of the private educational institutions that The increase in monthly charges has not added anything new in terms of the infrastructure and facilities of these institutions. “It has not brought anything new in the pedagogical and didactic fields, nor in the teaching methods, nor in the level of the educational and administrative staff working in these institutions. it.”
The “federalism of the democratic left” also put a question mark on the same subject, and added to it in a correspondence signed by its parliamentary representative, Fatima Al-Tamni, and addressed to Minister Chakib Benmoussa, expressing concern that “Moroccan families are faced with a real crisis with each new entry into school, in everything concerning school supplies and the expenses they require weigh on families given the increase in prices and the high cost of living.
The aforementioned parliamentarian believes that the issue is the same “both in relation to public and private education, whose high costs are becoming increasingly burdensome for families”, but she pointed the finger at private schools that “every year violate their function, given that the law stipulates in the first place that they claim to be an educational institution, despite the tax advantages and privileges it enjoys, but it is oriented towards the purely profitable side.”
In addition to registration or re-registration fees, Representative Fatima Al-Tamani raised the issue of books and school supplies, as “many private educational institutions across the country are moving in one direction, imposing the sale of books and school supplies on students.”
According to the opposition MP, this case is repeated “at the beginning of each academic season, which contradicts the educational function in favor of the commercial side”, because it is “the high prices of supplies and books” that are recorded. at each new academic entry, not to mention the imposition of “courses”. “Faced with the weak intervention and control of the tutoring sector”, in exchange for the low prices of the same products in the rest of the libraries and stores. designated for this purpose.
Representative Tamani questioned “what measures the ministry intends to take to protect Moroccan families from the greed of private education employers,” and also to protect “the rights of library owners against the lucrative practices of institutions whose main role concerns private education.” the educational aspect and not commercial activities.
Minister Benmoussa also questioned “the procedures that can be adopted with a view to imposing control over the approved programmes and courses, both on the material aspect in terms of cost and on the moral aspect linked to the contents and content”.
