Veel sympathie voor het protest van Marokkaanse onderwijzers na politiegeweld

Hundreds of trainee teachers from different training centres across Morocco have been protesting and boycotting their training programmes since Thursday. The protests came in response to calls by the National Coordination Committee against two recently issued government decrees. The first decree cuts the amount of teacher training grants by half, reducing a teacher trainee’s monthly stipend of 2,500 Dirhams ($252) to as little as 1,200 Dirhams ($121) (…) In response, security forces violently dispersed the peaceful protests in several cities across the country, including Marrakesh, Casablanca and Inzeggane. The heavyhanded crackdown on the protesting trainee teachers led to dozens of injuries. Shocking images of the assault went viral on social media, sparking outrage and drawing local and international condemnations, with many people denouncing the excessive use of force by the police (…) In addition to solidarity vigils across the country, social media users have launched online campaigns to show sympathy with the prospective teachers, as well as to reject the violence used against them. Nabila Mounib, Secretary General of the Unified Socialist Party, has joined expressed solidarity through the Arabic hashtag “don’t touch my teacher”. In addition, a Moroccan activist launched an online petition on Thursday demanding that the officials responsible for the use of excessive force against trainee teachers be held accountable.

Nada Ramadan in Morocco’s teacher protests trigger political crisis after government violence (Newarab)