HIBAPRESS – Rabat
The Democratic Labor Organization and the Democratic Education Organization expressed their categorical rejection of the decision to impose registration fees on the category of employees and workers wishing to continue their studies within public universities, within the framework of the "flexible hours" system, considering that the step represents a "serious setback from national gains and a clear blow to the principle of free public education."
The two organizations affirmed in a joint statement received by the "HIBAPRESS" newspaper that the decision constitutes an "infringement on the constitutional right to pursue studies and social exclusion of wide segments of the Moroccan people," stressing that imposing fees in public higher education enshrines "the logic of trading in education and transforms universities into for-profit institutions subject to market logic." The statement pointed out that this measure contradicts the provisions of the Moroccan constitution, especially Article 31, which guarantees the right to accessible and quality education, and Article 40, which recognizes the principle of fairness in bearing public costs without prejudice to fundamental rights, explaining that the decision violates Law 01.00 organizing higher education, which stipulates in its sixth and sixteenth articles the free of charge of public university institutions. The statement added that the decision also represents a setback from Morocco's international commitments, especially Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which calls for making higher education gradually available to all free of charge, as well as contradicting the sustainable development goals calling for ensuring equal opportunities for access to quality education. The two organizations considered that turning the "flexible hours" system into a paid formula "automatically excludes categories of employees and those with limited incomes from continuing their studies and enshrines class privilege in accessing knowledge," stressing that the public university "is not a for-profit institution, but a space for social advancement and building national competencies." In conclusion, the two organizations called on the government and the Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, to immediately cancel all memos and decisions that affect the principle of free education, with the issuance of an organizational memo that guarantees the complete free of charge of higher education in its various cycles. They also announced their intention to continue the trade union, legal and field struggle to defend the right to free public education as a basic pillar of social justice and human development.
