More students are joining the national student-led demand for online learning amid a stormy outbreak of COVID cases in Moroccan schools. With the continued rise in COVID-19 cases, students are taking to social media and reaching out to the press to protest their respective schools’ decision to shift to in-person classes.
On Monday, a student from George Washington Academy (GWA) reached out to Morocco World News to share students’ concerns over the school’s administration’s decision to shift to in-person classes by Wednesday, January 12.
The student said that “the new variant has been stressing out students especially since there is no social distancing in classrooms.”
When asked about the students’ complaints, the head of school confirmed to us via email that “GWA is currently online” as “the vast majority of students are in synchronous learning.”
She added, “At the beginning of the pandemic we established the office of Community Health Manager ... [to] meet the highest safety threshold as set by the authorities. At this point, we have had zero cases of confirmed transmission on campus during the pandemic.”
Morocco World News also received similar complaints from students at ENSAM Casablanca, Anisse International School in Casablanca, American School Rabat, Elbilia International High School, and French High School Le Detroit.
All of them noted the lack of effective measures at their schools and students’ fear of shifting to in-person learning as COVID cases spread in their classrooms.
A student from ENSAM Casablanca reported, “We as students are concerned and we need the local authorities to look into it for our safety.” They also commented on the widespread disregard for preventive measures, saying: “Professors teach without masks and students go to school without masks.”
Morocco World News reached out to many of the schools mentioned in students’ complaints but did not receive any reply by the time of writing.
As Morocco enters the peak of its third wave of COVID infections, students’ concerns about the risks of a return to in-person classes have been widely reported in the past few days.
Last week, high school students from Lycee Descartes in Rabat and Casablanca American School (CAS) expressed frustration towards their respective school administrations. Some CAS students even commented that “schools are hubs of infections.”
While CAS did not respond to our calls, Lycee Descartes confirmed that online learning will be extended until January 17.
Students from the National School of Commerce and Management (ENCG) in Casablanca and Tangier and the International University of Rabat (UIR) shared similar concerns.
On January 12, the Moroccan Minister of Education reported in its weekly press release the closure of 36 Moroccan schools and 17 foreign mission schools across the country.
Three days earlier, the coordinator of Morocco’s Public Health Emergency Operations Center Dr. Mouad Merabet declared COVID-19’s alert level as the country entered its fourth week of the now spiraling third wave.
With experts unanimously indicating that the frighteningly spreading third wave will peak in the coming two weeks, students are concerned that a return to in-person education would be disastrous.
“Moroccan high schools are full of COVID cases” yet students and personnel continue to come to school “and spread the virus everywhere,” one student told Morocco World News.
Echoing the same sentiment of widespread COVID complacency in their school, another student sent out a cry for help, urging authorities to take action. “Please do something because we are afraid for our lives and those of our loved ones,” they said.