The city of the trade winds has just experienced on Sunday, December 18, a protest movement, the first of its kind in the education sector at the provincial level, through a peaceful march initiated by the National Education Union (FDT), the National Federation of Education Officials (UNTM), the National Federation of Education (UMT), and the Free Federation of Education (UGTM).

The national coordination of these central unions was able to create the event and keep a whole city on edge that is concerned about the situation of public school and its pedagogical and administrative staff.

To this effect, the participants chanted slogans in favour of the protection of public school, the highlighting of the sacrifices of teachers, the respect for laws and procedures, as well as the moralisation of union life while condemning the phenomenon of ghost officials.

The march had started from Menzah Square, crossing Mohammed VI Boulevard, before arriving at 1 p.m. at the headquarters of the regional delegation of the MEN. While marking its solidarity with the families of Dar El Cadi Ben Rahmoune who were the subject of a lawsuit filed by the AREF Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz, represented by its director, with a view to evicting them from the apartments they have occupied for forty years already. A selective trial that led to contradictory verdicts and was widely contested by the families and the entire public opinion in Essaouira. The participants chanted slogans against the real estate lobby, which they accuse of manoeuvres in this affair.

Mohammed Mouatassim, provincial secretary of the SNE/FDT, took it upon himself, on behalf of the union coordination, to place this walkout, which will be followed by a two-day provincial strike on December 21 and 22, 2011, in its historical and institutional context.

Therefore, he highlighted the common project of the four unions that rallied around a vision for the institutionalisation of relations with the MEN delegation, the moralisation, and the revaluation of union life in Essaouira. The joint communiqué of the four unions, he added, clearly expresses their position on the sterile dialogue at the level of the provincial commission, which has not led so far to any consensual solution satisfying the just demands of the coordination. The latter called for reviewing the assignments of human resources, decided outside the provincial commission, the dissemination of the note regulating the application and choice of teachers applying for school integration classes according to the required pedagogical and didactic standards. The communiqué had, among other things, demanded the eradication of ghost officials as well as the settlement of the lack of teachers in certain subjects, notably at the middle school level.

Through a previous communiqué, the four unions had pointed the finger at the former delegate recently transferred to Marrakech. The latter is accused by the said unions of having instituted a clientelist culture and erected arbitrariness in terms of decision-making with a heavy record made of abuses, problems, and irregularities.

After highlighting the achievements of the union coordination, the communiqué expressed its astonishment at the transfer of the former delegate to Marrakech on the eve of the change of the government team. A transfer qualified as a promotion in light of his record, which the communiqué qualified as catastrophic.