It is a day of celebration at the Sidi Bennour high school. Indeed, the teachers and administrative staff of this establishment were keen to pay a vibrant tribute to their colleagues who have reached the end of their professional careers. A whole life of labour dedicated to the service of others and in particular to the preparation of generations to come. All the acts and all the words are obviously not strong enough to express the gratitude felt towards them.

The ceremony, presided over by Mohamed Hejjaoui, provincial delegate of the Ministry of National Education in Sidi Bennour, and to which many teachers, service agents, pupils, and parents of pupils were invited, was organised within the grounds of the Sidi Bennour high school, an establishment dating from 1952 which constitutes a place of renewal for many people who participate at different levels in the management of our country's affairs.

It is without boastfulness that Mr Hejjaoui was keen to recall that “the occasion is beautiful to remember the courage and foresight of our teaching colleagues”, these militants whose adversary is more than an enemy; in other words, these soldiers armed with chalk, pencils, and good will, never lower their arms before this enemy which is none other than ignorance.

Contrary to what Marcel Pagnol said in Manon des Sources: “A pensioner is generally an orphan, and often a widower, who watches others work and eats the taxpayers' money”, the holding of such a ceremony qualifies this remark as obsolete by restoring life and hope to these retired people and allows them, as a result, to continue to transmit unconditionally to new recruits and pupils the love of the profession, even though the approaches to which they remain attached have changed and the practice of the classroom has overtaken them. They are there, however, to set an example. Who among us does not remember a role model? We must not isolate them, nor force them into a definitive retirement, “in an ignored place”, according to the expression of Colette.

He who “has hastened his retirement” (Racine), via voluntary departure, or has consumed his sixty years, needs, more than ever, his colleagues to live a peaceful retirement, a retirement in which friends, colleagues, and family are called upon to accompany him to play his role as a pensioner to the end. Human warmth, that is!

These soldiers who have decided to wash their hands and turn their backs on the civil service without slamming the doors, with tears in their eyes and a heavy heart, must have in mind the idea that it is only the ungrateful who can forget them, and that this type of individual does not exist in this body immunised by the solidarity between its members.

They will be constantly well surrounded. That reassures them!

Happy retirement, gentlemen and ladies, Haj Abdelkader Khoubalat, Haj Mohamed Mennane, Abdelkader Mourabit, Abdellah Mennane, Hajja Aïcha Bousserghine, Hajja M’barka Khoubalat, Mohammed Bassir, Habib Aarfaoui, Mohamed Mabrouk, Amina Jtiti, Hassania Hasnaoui, Mostapha Agrou, Habiba Ninia.