Despite widespread criticism, private schools continue to increase school insurance rates
Heba Press_Rabat
With each entry into school, the “confusion” increases, and with it arises the problem of school insurance, particularly in the part related to private education, at a time when the latter is valued at a few dirhams in public education, we see it soaring. high with its private counterpart, in defiance of the principle of equal opportunities and transparency, noting that the principle existing in administrative management, it requires the continuity of the establishment in its relationship with the execution of decisions, because the issue of “school insurance” in private education had already received its share of analyses and criticism at the time of the former Minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research, “Saeed Amzazi”, which led the man of the time to issue strict instructions. addressed to directors, managers and owners of private educational institutions, requiring them to inform the parents of students in detail about the terms of the student insurance contract and warning them of the consequences of failure to comply with the controls specified in the correspondence at the end of the insurance process, which will be subject to review and control by the bodies responsible for monitoring their work…
***Instructions and warnings…but what to do next?
Despite the strict directives of the former Minister of Transport, Saeed Amzazi, during the tenure of the previous government, some private schools still impose high insurance and registration fees, without following the instructions issued in this regard. Some of them allocated an amount. fund for insurance fees and set them at 50 dirhams, but they are… In return, the bill was doubled by imposing other fees.
** Minister Amzazi’s confessions at the time..
At that time, the Minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research, Saeed Amzazi, had acknowledged, and earlier before the Education Committee of the House of Representatives, (admitted) that there were legal loopholes in the control of school insurance in the private education sector, indicating that the insurance could not exceed 50 dirhams.
Amzazi added at the time that there are private schools that resort to high insurance contributions to perform the duties of employees and teachers during the months of July and August, stressing at the same time the need to amend the laws governing private education in order to create a healthy environment characterized by transparency and clarity in the relations between these private establishments and the parents and guardians of learners and educated women.
*** Benmoussa and the logic of concluding contracts between private institutions and families
Before the current school entered the era of Minister Chakib Benmoussa, many private institutions began to distribute a model contract, supposed to frame the relations between them and families.
Through a first reading of its preamble, we see that it is a fundamental reference document to frame and organize the aforementioned relationship, in consecration of the principle of transparency, clarity and protection of the rights and guarantees of all parties.
The document of this contract, a copy of which is available on Hiba Press, also aims to define the duties and rights of both parties, particularly at the level of educational aspects by protecting the right to school, and aspects related to registration, insurance, and school fees, school meals, school transport and other services.
The document also emphasizes that this contract does not prevent the signing of additional contracts between the contracting parties, provided that the general rules governing the relations between the parties specified in this contract are respected.
****Private education is an essential partner in universal education
This is stated in the preamble included in the contract, which recognizes that private school education is an essential partner in the advancement of the education and training system, a major component of Moroccan school components and a contributor to efforts aimed at universalizing quality education for all, as confirmed by the Message of His Royal Highness on the occasion of the start of the 2001-2002 school year by which His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God grant him victory and support, considered that private education is a partner of the State, and not a competitor and contributes to serving public affairs in a transparent framework that allows it to be stimulated and quality standards to be imposed in its performance.
***Will the contract be enough?
A document calls for taking into account a set of principles to ensure the functioning, continuity and efficiency of the private educational establishment, including:
* Respect the interest of the student, their psychological and health comfort and appropriate educational conditions. Respect the right of families to choose the appropriate educational institution for their children, whether public or private, in order to guarantee their right to an education that suits them, their ambitions and convictions, as well as their financial capacities.
* Ensure the financial, social and psychological stability and security of administrative and educational staff within the establishment.
* Ensure that families fulfill their financial obligations to their private institution in order to ensure their financial balances which allow them to respect their educational, legal, social and financial duties.
****A contract with legal references
According to the drafters of the contract, this is part of the transparency required in the educational service provided by private school education, and in the implementation of the educational reform and the acceleration of its pace in accordance with its objectives specified in the framework law No. 51.17 relating to the education, training and scientific research system, and on the basis of the general report issued by the commission on the model of the development plan presented before the eyes of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God grant him victory and support, on May 25, 2021, and on the orientations of the government program (2021-2026), which emphasizes that the development of education is at the heart of the challenges facing our country, with the aim of achieving real equality of opportunities.
As well as on the basis of the recommendations of Opinion No. 21/1 of the Competition Council issued on 20 Dhul-Qi’dah 1442 corresponding to July 1, 2021, relating to the status of competition in private educational establishments in Morocco, in particular with regard to organizing and supervising the relationship between mothers, fathers and guardians of students and private educational establishments by working on a contractual system with families that meets the requirements of a transparent and binding contract for both parties.
*** A contract…a means or an end?
As you go through the contractual document, you will find that it calls on all parties to prevail in a pedagogical spirit full of confidence and based on transparency and clarity in the services provided, sufficient to achieve the expected objectives of private school education that His Majesty the King, may God assist him in his message mentioned above, and this The contract is only a legal means of protecting the achievement of these objectives in the event of disagreement between the parties.
