Rabat - Morocco has been recruiting football players in European countries to compete on behalf of the kingdom in future regional and Olympic competitions, according to Mark Wotte, who was appointed last November football federation's performance director.

Wotte said on Friday that Moroccans in the diaspora qualify to compete as Moroccans in regional and international competitions through their family ties.

“We are in a position that we can look at players internally but also from outside the country,” the Dutch coach told World Soccer in Rabat. “We have held training camps that have included youngsters from Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany and France.  They qualify through their parents or grandparents.”

Recruiting Moroccans living abroad will ensure that the national teams will have players with the diverse skills necessary to succeed, Wotte added.

“The one difference I have noticed is that the local youth play a lot on instinct, whereas those who have come from abroad, in my opinion, are tactically more disciplined in their approach,” Wotte said. “It is our job to ensure that both styles merge for the benefit of football in this country.”

Wotte began his position as Head Coach for National Teams last December, when the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (RMFF) tasked him with preparing the Moroccan national football team for the next two African Under-20 Championships in 2017 and 2019. In addition, Wotte’s responsibilities include grooming Morocco’s future Under-23 team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

In addition to Morocco’s 18-year absence from the World Cup, the national team, has had little success at the African Cup of Nations. The Atlas Lions won the cup in 1976 and reached the finals in 2004, however the team failed to pass preliminary matches in the last three competitions.

The coach said that although local Moroccans and Moroccans in the diaspora have different backgrounds, the two groups get along well inside and outside of training.

“There is no tension between the two groups,” he said. “They are very patriotic and share the same dream of representing Morocco.”

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Rabat - Badou Zaki, the former coach of Morocco’s national football team, will become the “General Supervisor for National Teams,” according to Medi 1 TV.

Zaki’s new position comes as part of a resolution with the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (RMFF) after the two parties decided to end his contract as coach of the Atlas Lions with mutual consent.

The RMFF and Zaki will hold a meeting early next week to determine the functions of the new position more clearly and discuss how it will affect the existing administrative structure of Moroccan football.

According to several sources cited by Medi 1, Zaki’s salary will be MAD 500,000 per month, which equals his previous salary as coach of the national football team. The RMFF previously offered him MAD 300,000 for the new position, but Zaki refused the offer and threatened to escalate the matter to FIFA for a MAD 12,000,000 settlement.

Zaki, who is originally from Sidi Kacem, began working as a coach for football clubs right after he retired from the Atlas Lions at age 34 in 1993 after a 17-year career on the field representing several teams.

In 2002, Zaki become the coach for the Atlas Lions, but left the position after three years. He retook his position with the national team in May 2014, however, the RMFF and Zaki mutually ended his coaching contract last month “after 20 months of instability and inconsistent results,” according to a statement by the federation.

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Rabat - Abdelilah Benkirane, head of the Moroccan government, called in security during his speech at the Institute for Graduate Studies in Management in Oujda on Saturday, after a group of teacher trainees began whistling and chanting in protest during the event.

Benkirane told organizers to “understand the government” and called on security officers to escort the protesters outside after waiting for the teacher trainees to become silent and calm the hall.

According to the news source Qushq, Benkirane had explicitly asked the organizers not to have security present at the event, which was officially associated with the Justice and Development Party. However, after the protesters began their chants demanding him to “drop the decrees” that negatively affect the future educators, he called on security to take action.

The decrees mentioned by protestors refer to decrees N: 588-15-2 and N: 589-15-2 which were put in place by the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training last year. The new policies separate teacher training from actual employment at the end of the program and cut the amount of the training scholarship by half.

Since October, scores of future teachers have been protesting the effects of the two decrees. On December 17, 2015, thousands of teacher trainees and their families reportedly gathered in Rabat for a protest known as the “white flood,” which refers to the white color of the trainees' uniforms. The event was reported as the “largest peaceful march” in the history of the capital city.

Not all the protests have been safe for the protestors, however. On January 7th, several protesters were beaten by the Moroccan police in different regions of the country; the day is now known to the group as “Black Thursday.”

There are no signs for further rounds of dialogue after a meeting between the protestors’ national coordinating committee and the government on February 4th failed to resolve the conflict.

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Salé -  The criminal court in charge of terrorism affairs at the annexe of Salé's appellate court on Friday gave verdicts ranging from two to three years in prison against seven Syrian nationals sued in terrorism cases.

Four convicts were sentenced to three years, and the other three were given two years in prison.

The convicts were sued for "forming a criminal gang to prepare and commit criminal acts, possession of weapons within the framework of a collective plot to seriously undermine public order", "glorifying terrorist acts", "falsifying or participating in the falsification of administrative documents, and entering the national territory illegally".

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Washington - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should get Algeria and Polisario separatists to listen to the voice of reason, Robert Holley, former US diplomat and expert in the region underlined, stressing that they should embrace the virtues of the Sahara Autonomy Plan.

Algeria and the Polisario should come "to understand and embrace the reality that a ‘mutually acceptable political solution’ means giving up the idea of creating yet another fragile micro-state in an already fragile and dangerous region," Holley said in an article published on www.moroccoonthemove.com.

He highlighted that Morocco has put on the table "a more than generous offer" to grant the Sahara an autonomous status, adding that Morocco’s proposal "has been repeatedly acknowledged as ‘serious, credible and realistic’ by both Washington and many others that matter."

"This problem has only one solution", he underlined, adding that the United Nations will do peace in a huge favor if it "makes a serious effort at getting the recalcitrant in Algiers and Tindouf to understand that."

The Algerian regime and the leader of the separatists should "let the people in these gulags choose their own destiny" and allow "those in the camps (who) would like nothing better than the opportunity to go home to Morocco with their families and belongings" to do so, the American expert added.

"It’s time for the Polisario to get out of the way and allow the UN High Commission for Refugees to launch a voluntary repatriation program to assist those in the camps to return home if they so choose,"  he added.

He noted that the UN Secretary General has often warned in public the last few years that the dispute over Sahara has become "a time bomb that needs to be defused as security matters in the wider Sahara/Sahel region continue to threaten the peace and stability of the whole of both northern and sub-Saharan Africa."

MWN with MAP

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Rabat - Casablanca has been chosen by US magazine Cities and technologies (CITI) among Africa’s top 5 cities for opportunity.

Morocco’s largest city and economic capital ranked fourth in the list, right between Johannesburg (third) and Algiers (fifth.)

“Casablanca triumphed in the hotly-contested economics index, coming first in GDP diversity and as a key location for Top 500 company headquarters — top transport and energy infrastructure rankings no doubt helped in this sense,” CITI said.

However, and like Tunis, the city was let down by poor diversity and population growth, typical of the North African cities surveyed, the magazine added.

North African cities dominated the top five, with Cairo in first position, followed by Tunis.

Last year, Casablanca was ranked the fourth city for opportunities in Africa in a study released by American consulting confirm PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC (PwC).

The Moroccan economic capital ranked first in “economics” criteria, with a score that reaches 122, and first as the city with the highest number of headquarters of the top 500 companies in Africa.

Casablanca ranked fourth in terms of GDP per capita, and fifth in terms of the attraction of foreign direct investments (FDI).

With regards to infrastructure, Casablanca ranked also first in terms of transportation infrastructure, third in terms of airport connectivity, and fourth in road security.

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Rabat - Morocco has become a member of the Interoperability Platform, launched by The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to reinforce the defense and security sectors of its partners in the MENA region.

NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, said during the recent NATO-Morocco Public Diplomacy Seminar held in Rabat that Morocco ‘’ has joined our Interoperability Platform so that its armed forces can better operate with NATO forces.”

Under this membership, the Moroccan armed forced will operate side by side with NATO forces in the upcoming joint regional security initiatives against terrorism and religious extremism.

“With its professional and modern military, Morocco has contributed in various ways to NATO missions in the Balkans and to Operation Unified Protector in Libya five years ago,” Vershbow said, adding that the greatest challenge faced by Morocco today is from “terrorism and religious extremism.”

NATO official said that Morocco's membership in NATO Interoperability Platform caps a long history of bilateral diplomatic and defense cooperation, noting that NATO considers the northern African country a “a neighbor, a partner and a friend that this regional organization can rely on.”

Morocco’s relationship with NATO has been strengthened over the past couple of years since the country signed an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program to identify points of future collaboration, particularly in the fields of cybersecurity, energy independence, and military defense initiative.

 Morocco is member of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue since its launch in 1994 and benefits from associate Status to NATO’s parliament assembly.

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Madrid  -   In a region plagued by many hotbeds of instability, internal strife and an existential struggle against extremist terrorism, “Morocco, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, chose its own path and resolved to work towards consolidating its democracy,” Youssef Amrani, Chargé de Mission at the King's Office, said.

"At a time when political transitions evolve in extremely tense conflict situations, Morocco has confidently pressed ahead with its political agenda, endeavoring since the country’s independence to foster a liberal, multiparty environment conducive to strengthening the Rule of law, while displaying a firm commitment to international democratic principles, in full harmony with the country’s traditions of tolerance and openness", Amrani pointed out in an article entitled "Morocco: a singular path in a troubled region" published on the prestigious Spanish think tank "Real Instituto El Cano".

The firmer Minister Delegate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, pinpointed a number of key factors that make Morocco’s democratic path “unique and successful,” including its longstanding commitment to building democracy and its enduring option for modernity, political pluralism and economic liberalism, noting that the new Constitution adopted in July 2011 "enshrined this continuous reform process and gave it a strong impetus, confirming its irreversible nature".

 He also underlined that the advanced regionalization plan, which aims to promote integrated, sustainable economic, social, environmental and cultural development, “reflects Morocco’s commitment to building strong and diversified national economy which can generate wealth, create jobs and achieve social justice for all.”

Amrani highlighted the significant progress Morocco has made in economic development and environmental protection, stressing that "the global vision for the nation’s future is based on the firm commitment to build a social, participatory and inclusive democracy".

"King Mohammed VI’s clear vision seeks to cover all aspects of human development by promoting, side by side, the two essential pillars that are economic and political development", referring to several major sectorial strategies such as the Green Plan, the Emergence Plan, the tourism 2020 plan, and structuring projects, including the ‘Tangier-Med’ and ‘Nador West’ ports, highways, express LGV trains, logistics and energy.

As for renewable energy sector, he said that Morocco is pioneering green development and developing a cutting-edge solar technology, referring to the King’s inauguration of the Nor Plant.

In addition, Amrani cited openness to the outside world, an attachment to moderation and tolerance, and a commitment to human development through solidarity-based policies and efficient cooperation as Morocco’s Foreign policy guiding principles.

Regarding Morocco’s African policy, he said that it stems from the deep conviction that the continent needs more mutually beneficial partnerships, as well as human development programs, adding that King Mohammed VI believes that adapted and relevant models of cooperation, which rest on a win-win vision, such as South-South cooperation, will enable Africa to stand on its own two feet.

With MAP

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Rabat - Morocco is the most globalized country in Africa, according to Swiss Economic Institute KOF Index of Globalization 2016.

Released last Friday, the report ranked Morocco 57^th out of 207 countries, followed by Mauritius 58^th, South Africa 61^st, Egypt 66^th, Tunisia 81^st, Seychelles 82^nd, Namibia 98^th, Senegal 99^th, and Nigeria 103^rd.

According to the index, the Netherlands topped the list, ahead of Ireland and Belgium, which topped last year’s ranking.

The index is primarily based on the economic dimension of globalization, with particular reference to the extent of cross-border trade, investment and revenue flows in relation to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as the impact of trade and capital transaction restrictions.

The index also takes into account the social dimension of globalization, which is categorized into several telecommunication mediums, including the fluidity cross-border contacts in the form of telephone calls and letters. Additionally, the size of the resident foreign population, tourist flows, the media accessibility (both foreign and domestic), and openness to international business all affect the ratings.

With respect to the political dimension of globalization’s measure, the index looks at the number of foreign embassies in the country’s territory, the number of international organizations in which the country is a member, and the number of the country’s bilateral and multilateral agreements.

KOF Swiss Economic Institute is one of the leading polling organizations in Switzerland. It acts as an intersection that between the research community and general public in matters of politics and sociology.

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Rabat - Former employees of Societe Anonyme Marocaine de l'Industrie du Raffinage (SAMIR) and citizens of Mohammedia will participate in a hunger strikenext Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. to urge the government to re-nationalize the oil refinery from Corral Petroleum Holdings, owned by Saudi businessman Mohammed Al Moudi.

The local committee tasked with taking political and legal action to restart production at (SAMIR), held a meeting about the refinery last Saturday. After the meeting, the committee invited political parties, trade unions, and locals to participate in a march that will take place in Mohammedia next Saturdaybefore the hunger strike scheduled for the next day.

In a press release summarizing a legal path forward to refund and reopen the refinery - which stopped production last August due to “financial constraints” - the committee announced plans to form a team of lawyers to defend the rights of the site’s workers. When Al Moudi fled the kingdom at the end of last August due to his soured relations with the Moroccan government, he left over 950 workers without pay.

“A lawsuit will be filed against all parties that enabled this disaster and caused damage to the workers, the city, and the nation,” the statement read.

“The Moroccan state is responsible for re-nationalizing the company, restarting production at the refinery, and opening an investigation to determine those responsible for this big scandal”

Last October, SAMIR got the backing of its “extraordinary general assembly” to raise MAD 10.4 billion in capital in order restart production. The company had said that as two-thirds shareholder, Al Amoudi would contribute two-thirds of the necessary capital or $675 million to the company byNovember 15th.

The committee’s statement, however, said that the creditors who had promised to contribute to the refinancing deal did not follow through on their commitments.

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Rabat  -  Morocco's security services dismantled this Monday a five-member terror cell related to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).

The suspects, who were operating in the southern city of Smara and the regions of Belfaa and Ait Amira, were planning to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq before deciding to join the organization in Libya through Mauritania with the help of traffickers in the region, the Interior Ministry pointed out in a statement.

According to investigations, the cell intended to declare "Jihad" in the Kingdom and one of its members was preparing a pressure cooker bomb to carry out a terrorist operation targeting public places, the source said.

The suspects will be brought before justice after the completion of investigations conducted under the competent public prosecutor's office.

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By Asmaa Bahadi

Rabat - International Women’s Day is annually held on March 8 to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history and across nations. It is also known as the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

This year, the Ministry of Moroccans Residing Abroad and Migration Affairs will highlight Moroccan women’s achievements in the entrepreneurship field by organizing a meeting on March 10, 2016 in Marrakech in partnership with the Association of Female Entrepreneurs in Morocco (AFEM).

Forty Moroccan women from around the world representing 19 countries distinguished themselves through their entrepreneurial dynamism in different sectors, including new information technologies, industry, communication, design, food, transportation and logistics, cosmetics, finances will be celebrated.

AFEM is a pioneer association uniting women who are heads and executives of businesses in Morocco.

Founded on September 28, 2000 by. Salwa Karkri Belkziz, the association has always worked with determination and selflessness to promote women's entrepreneurship.

As an open gate for female entrepreneurs nationally and internationally, AFEM now has a strong network of more than 500 women at the head of legal companies such as SA, SARL, SNC, generating over 50,000 jobs.

Female entrepreneurs make up for approximately one third of all entrepreneurs globally. According to one study conducted in 2012, there were approximately 126 million women that were either starting or already running new businesses in various economies all over the world.  As far as those who were already established, there was an approximate 98 million.

Not only are these women running or starting their own businesses, but they are also employing others, so that they are participating in the growth of their respective economies.

For this reason, the meeting aims to encourage networking and to support women who want to start their business in Morocco by celebrating female entrepreneurship, sharing experiences, and offering feedback. It will also provide an opportunity to reach out to female experts specialized in the development of entrepreneurship.

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Rabat - Engineers at SmartiLab,  a Moroccan research and development laboratory located in Istanbul, won four awards at the Istanbul International Inventions Fair (ISIF) on Saturday.

The fair, held in Turkey’s capital from March 3 to March 6, is an annual show that features the commercialization of patents and inventions under the patronage of International Federation of Inventors’ Association (IFIA).

The Moroccan team received a total of four medals one gold, two silver, and one bronze for research conducted by the laboratory, which serves as an extension of the Moroccan School of Engineering sciences.

According to organizers, it is “unprecedented” for a single country “to win such a wide array of medals at one session of the annual competition,” Hespress reported.

The gold medal was awarded for the invention of an indoor positioning system that utilizes nano-satellites to maximize accuracy. A silver medal and a bronze medal was awarded in the electrical engineering and electronics category.

The team earned their final silver medal in the diagnostics and biotechnology category for the invention of a 3D electromagnetic scanner to assist in the electronic diagnosis of patients.

According to the director of SmartiLab, Hafid Griguer, the government of Morocco has tasked the laboratory with the development and management of Morocco’s intellectual property portfolio. The lab’s goal is to improve Morocco's ranking in the Global Innovation Index published every year by the World Intellectual Property Association.

The index uses a number of criteria to gage the amount of scientific innovation occurring around the world. One of main criteria is the ratio of the number of patents filed by the country’s inventors to the size of the country’s population. The 2015 Global Innovation Index puts Morocco in the 45th percentile in terms of overall innovation in the social and scientific arenas.

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By Said Rahioui

Rabat - Nowadays, learning has become more abysmal in our country. This upsetting fact may be ascribed to a set of interconnected factors, which spectacularly degenerate the current situation of Moroccan education.

Despite the process of trial and error adopted by the responsible, all the trials failed to meet the desired objectives. From this perspective, I would like to broach that the majority of the applied approaches in our education stem from totally different environments. To be precise, Moroccan educationalists continue to borrow educational methods from decidedly advanced countries such as Canada, Japan, France, and Germany to name just a few. This situation seems to be tongue-in-cheek since the specialists try to apply some approaches, which are meant to serve a particular educational landscape, and not the Moroccan one. Every teaching and learning approach has certain requirements to take place. As a concrete illustration, the application of the Communicative Language Teaching approach in the learning process has need of a limited number of students in the classroom, highly qualified and veteran teachers, which is totally the contrary in our country. In this vein, the following questions are addressed. First, what are the reasons that result in the agony of Moroccan education? Second, why do all adopted approaches fail to meet the set up goals of change? Third, to what extent can we claim that Moroccan students are able to develop their learning process and create positive and promising changes? How can we overcome the threatening failure our education undergoes?

At the outset, the compelling reason that has exacerbated Moroccan education is the arbitrary intercession of politics in the field of education. That is to say, when politicians control the decision-making process in education, an unavoidable malfunction occurs. Putting it differently, politicians have various backgrounds that, more often than not, lack the necessary tools to make the right decisions and come up with insightful reforms. People who lack experience and expertise in education must keep out of education and give the opportunity to those who have rich and wide-ranging knowledge about the theories and the approaches related to education. It is nonsensical to involve politicians in the decision-making process, because their contributions lack unity and conformity, as their political orientation appears to be contradictory.  Since there is this concrete dichotomy in their backgrounds, there will be nothing but bedlam and unproductiveness in all their trials.

This very critical concept, education, is considered to be one of the most outstanding and leading domains, which is the backbone and the corner stone of every progress. It is instantly recognizable that with a frail education, all sectors will unquestionably undergo, from top to bottom, an entire paralysis and breakdown. To be well reformed, education stalwartly requires competent people who can bring invaluable, practical and fail-safe solutions, which can lead to the achievement of positive outcomes to reach the apogee and escape the experienced decline.

As far as the second reason is concerned, it may be attributed to incompetent teachers who have joined the world of education. Of late, a lot of parents have asserted that they are not satisfied with the outcomes their children achieve in public institutions. Their claims are more often related to the lack of competence and the required skills in the educational body as a whole. In the classroom environment, the teacher tries to follow easy approaches, which do not help the students improve their learning and does not have a follow-up strategy to assess the skills being learnt during the course. Besides, both the summative and formative assessment methods are ignored, as the teacher is not aware of their basically important role in the learning process. In the same context, light should be shed on the lack of lesson preparation, which causes a poor flow in the offered courses.

In this day and age, the training given to Moroccan English Language Teachers in particular and the teachers of other subjects in general does not procure them with the necessary materials and the practical knowledge they will be using when they will set their feet on the educational platform. One-year training is not and will never be sufficient to guarantee fruitful results. At least, a couple of years ago, the offered training was two years time, and the obtained results were far better than those obtained in one-year time training. In general, the outcomes students have achieved were to some extent satisfying.

Today, parents find themselves obliged to send their children to private institutions even though it does cost them an arm and a leg because they have lost confidence in the public sector and the poor services it offers. to realize their full professional potential. For this reason, all priorities are given to them so that they can lead the country to a better environment and procure it with the necessary tools to be benchmarked against the best countries.

Underprivileged students are the victims in this educational game.. The accessibility to private schools remains hard if not impossible in most cases. This category is overlooked by the responsible, squeezed by hardship, and marginalized by the whole society. The situation gradually worsens as it opens new doorways to juvenile crimes, which have calamitous effects on the individual in particular and the community in general.

Another important reason for the decline of education is associated with the overloaded programs. Starting from the primary education to post graduate studies, the student must study more than seven subjects with extremely loaded programs. In this vein, the teacher is obliged to finish the whole program integrated in each subject. This approach leads to the deficiency in the learning process as it completely emphasizes quantity more willingly than quality. Today, the job market requires quality in order to pave the way towards new horizons and new challenges, which do create weighty and successfully built businesses.

The age of students must be taken into account if we really want to realize positive outcomes. The weight of backpacks can negatively affect the growth of young learners’ physical and mind health. The burden they carry on their backs the whole day can push them to hate school and consider it as their first enemy.  Furthermore, it is very difficult for the students who are 5 or 6 years old to grasp all what their tutors teach them. The situation gets worse with the number of subjects they have to cover. Since the mind of young learners is not as ready as that of older learners, it will be hard for the former to receive the presented information in a successful way. To help students fathom out all the given information, the situation requires more time, which is not the case in our country, Morocco. If the teacher adopts the drill approach, he will never be able to finish the program in the set deadline. The latter approach is of significant importance as it gives a golden opportunity to learners to master and stick the skills taught to them.

The shift from the French system to the Arabic system that Moroccan government has experienced has contributed to the degradation of education, which was, to some extent, fruitful and solid two decades ago. The flaw with this system is that it lacks combination and unity since it is adopted only in the primary, junior and high school education. After these three main stages, higher education adopts a French system especially in science related fields. This situation brings about a serious breakdown between the three first stages of education and university. Students are accustomed to a specific system, the Arabic system. Then, they meet a completely different system, the French system, which creates confusion and encumbrance in the learning process of students. A lot of learners find the fields they want to study quite hard. Consequently, this situation compels them to change their specialization and follow other fields even though they neither appreciate nor excel at them.

The Moroccan government has hardly tried to reform education and earmarked large budgets to overcome the difficulties besieging the current education. However, all the trials failed to meet the planned objectives. The government has adopted different reforming programs that have borrowed from different countries namely Canada, France, and Japan. All these programs have not made the grade since they have been integrated in a different educational landscape. These approaches require a specific number of students in the classroom (14 to 20) which is the contrary in Morocco (40 to 50). Moreover, such approaches need expert teachers to achieve rewarding results. Finally, the philosophy of the follow-up approach has to be taken into consideration. Another important factor that does not give an opportunity to the borrowed programs to be successful is the vision of the responsible is a short-term vision. Whatever chosen program, regardless of its effectiveness, must have a long-term vision if we really want to embrace well heeled change. It is impossible to come up with new programs and wait to get the results in four or five year’s time. All approaches must be given the necessary and required time to be effectual.

The majority of our dear students give too much emphasis to learning by heart what they get from their teachers without having an evident and clear understanding of what they HEAR or what they have in the given handouts. Unfortunately, a lot of students aim at getting their bachelor degree as soon as possible. However, they do not know whether their real level will allow them to accomplish and meet their objectives or not. Their skills are atrociously weak, in terms of performance chiefly in speaking, writing as well as many other aspects especially in language learning namely grammar, phonology, semantics, vocabulary and so forth. Actually, it is a disgusting reality. I keep marveling all the time, how do those students accept their bogus reality? How do they perceive themselves among other successful students? Are they satisfied with the result they have gotten? What do they need from this country? To what extent they will deal with their students in case they join the job market? How will they feel if some of their students find different flaws in their teaching and the way they transmit knowledge? .... The acrid reality is when such students' obsession is getting high marks even though they do not deserve them (we have a lot of examples: students with 6 or 5 distinctions...but with empty minds). I would be abashed if I were in their places. From this regard, I would like to send a touching and powerful message to all Moroccan students telling them: You, as Moroccan learners, have to bear in your minds that there will be no place for incompetent people in the forthcoming future. For this compelling reason I urge you to endeavor and strive so that you can successfully create a positive and abrupt change in Moroccan education and save it from the real danger devouring it from all sides.

To conclude, several solutions are suggested to enhance our education. Firstly, teachers must go through a thorough and painstaking training for three years so as to get the indispensable competences.  Secondly, the responsible must focus on quality not quantity. Thirdly, the number of the subjects should be minimized and keep only the relevant subjects, which job the market requires. Additionally, the overcrowded classrooms must be reconsidered. Fourthly, university students should assume their learning responsibility by devoting as much as possible time and efforts to their studies and by focusing all their attention on one point, enriching their fund of knowledge. In brief, it is worth mentioning that it is only by taking these modest suggestions into consideration that the Moroccan educational system can be partially reformed.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy

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Rabat - Seventy-eight percent of working Moroccan women expressed “frustration with tiring working conditions,” according to study conducted by the Forum Azzahrae for the Moroccan Woman.

In addition, over 50 percent of Moroccan women spend time after work completing household chores and ensuring their children are completing their schoolwork on time. Most of the women surveyed said they received little to no help managing the household after returning from their day job.

The survey, which was prepared by the forum and presented to the United Nations, had a sample size of 341 women who came from different regions of Morocco. Women surveyed held a mix of low-level and administrative jobs and demonstrated a diverse range of demographic factors, including age and socioeconomic background.

Many of the women surveyed said that current legislative texts “do not reflect the needs of Moroccan women to be able to secure administrative leave to fulfill their familial responsibilities.”

The forum, which is affiliated with the Justice and Development Party, added that the presence of women in decision-making positions in the public sector remains low. Even though the number of women in management positions is growing, the ratio of men to women in high-level positions is still slim. According to statistics cited by the forum, women make up less than one-third of high-level public officials.

Official figures indicate that, in 2014, the government did not hire any women in a public office clerk or inspector general positions.

The forum said in its report to the United Nations that the Moroccan government needs to enact legal and regulatory measures to increase the presence of women in the management of public services.

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Rabat  -  King Mohammed VI launched, here Monday, the construction works of two new railway stations, with a budget of 1.05 billion dirhams.

These structural projects, which are in line with the 2014-2018 Rabat Development Integrated Program dubbed: “Rabat City of Lights, Morocco's Cultural Capital”, illustrate the Sovereign’s permanent will to support the process of urban restructuring and modernization and reinforce intercity mobility.

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These two projects, which come to accompany the commissioning of the first line of Moroccan High Speed Train TGV, will help stem travelers’ flow, offer quality services, improve the stations’ functioning, visibility and accessibility, as well as to give new urban impetus around the new stations.

The project of the Rabat-Ville station (450 million dirhams) provides for reconverting the old station, listed a historic monument, into an art gallery, covering the old railways, and building new three-level passenger facility (16,000 square meters).

Rabat-Ville station is designed to receive up to 20 million passengers/year compared to 8 million passengers/year currently.

As for the construction of the Rabat-Agdal station, whose first stone was laid by HM the King on Monday, it provides for building new three-level passenger facility (23,000 square meters).

It is designed to receive 30 million passengers/year compared to 7 million passengers/year currently.

The new stations, which are carried out by the Moroccan national railway office (ONCF) are also expected to generate 500 stable jobs during the exploitation phase.

These projects will turn Rabat-Ville and Rabat-Agdal stations into smart and multi-service spaces that make of railway stations a community space for customers and the large public like the railway compounds of Marrakech, Fez, Tangier and Casa-Port.

On this occasion, Director General of ONCF Mohamed Rabie Khlie handed HM King Mohammed VI two books. The first highlights the achievements made in railway sector during the last fifteen years under the leadership of HM the King, whereas the second retraces the transformation of the railway stations in the Kingdom into multi-service living spaces,

The post King Mohammed VI Launches Construction Works of New Railway Stations in Rabat appeared first on Morocco World News.

Rabat - The Forum Azzahrae for Moroccan Woman said female journalists who wear the hijab are virtually banned from appearing on visual media. 

The forum, which is affiliated with the Justice and Development Party and includes over 100 organizations dedicated to addressing women’s issues, noted that Moroccan laws forbid gender-based discrimination in all of its forms.

Despite the law, women who choose to wear the hijab are discriminated against in the public and private sectors of the media, according to the report.

Aziza Al-Biqali, the president of the forum, said in a press conference on Monday that the report her organization sent to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights at the United Nations tells the international governmental organization to ask the Moroccan government about the absence of hijabi women from Moroccan media.

The forum, which hold an advisory position at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, asked Morocco to prevent gender-based discrimination and to strengthen the punishments for organizations that use discriminatory practices against women based on the clothes they choose to wear.

The forum’s report, published in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, also noted that the maximum punishment for domestic abuse cases in Morocco “needs to be increased” in order to combat the rising rates of physical violence occurring between husbands and wives.

Despite efforts by feminist activist organizations to encourage media to portray a positive image of women, women continue to suffer from the effects of negative media stereotypes that make it difficult for society to move forward, the report added.

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By Erkia Jarif

Amsterdam - The Netherlands wants to get rid of the 1972 social security treaty that it signed with Morocco. Thanks to this treaty, Dutch Moroccans who live in Morocco have benefits equal to those in the Netherlands. The current Dutch government, a combination of Social Democrats (PVDA) and Neo Liberals (VVD), finds this “unfair.” The Dutch government assumes that the standard of living in Morocco is much cheaper than that of the Netherlands; therefore, many Moroccans who receive social benefits and live in Morocco lead higher quality lives without the financial stress of those who live in the Netherlands and receive the same social benefits.

The current Minister of Social Affairs, Lodewijk Asscher, argues that all Dutch who live outside the EU should receive lower benefits based on the principle of the so-called “country of residence.” This means that social security payments must be adapted to the standard of living of the country where one resides. The Dutch government claims that it has made agreements for adjusting these payments with many countries but failed to do so with Morocco. The Dutch government has accused Morocco of being uncooperative and unwilling to comply to the suggested new measures.

After years of bickering and negotiations, the Dutch government seemed to have reached an agreement with the Moroccan government in September  2015. The two countries agreed that survivor benefits and benefits for the disabled would be lower in the future. They also decided that after 2021 the child benefit and the child budget will no longer be exported to Morocco. Compensation of health care costs for those staying in Morocco temporarily would be terminated as well. These measures would save the Netherlands several million euros each year.

Everything seemed to be solved. It was assumed that the new agreements would be signed soon. However, the Moroccan government added an additional requirement in December: the Netherlands must also transfer benefits to the Western Sahara. The issue is that the Netherlands does not recognize the Western Sahara as Moroccan territory. Therefore, the Dutch government did not understand this extra demand and decided to end all further negotiation with Morocco.

The Dutch government decided to terminate the social agreement unilaterally. On Feb. 16, 2016, after a debate took place between the Minister of Social Affairs and the House of Representatives, the Senate passed a bill to cancel the General Convention and Administrative Arrangement on Social Security with Morocco. If this treaty is terminated before July 1, 2016, it no longer applies after Jan. 1, 2017. This does not mean that all benefits will end immediately to Morocco, as current benefits cannot be cancelled. Morocco will continue to receive millions of euros on an annual basis.

The Dutch Minister of Social Affairs has said that he still holds the door open for Morocco and sincerely hopes the Moroccan government will come back to the table to negotiate.

However, Morocco remains unsatisfied and it appears that other treaties with the Netherlands, such as those regarding issues of fraud, security and justice, will come under pressure as well. Similarly, negotiations between Morocco and the EU regarding a potential association agreement are now also under threat. If Morocco and the EU resolve their issues and sign a new treaty, the new treaty would include a provision that the Netherlands must resume their benefits to Morocco.

I find the Dutch government rather peculiar on this specific matter, as I ask myself, “Are the benefits adjusted for Dutch people who live in the USA, Japan, Canada or Australia as well?” The cost of living is much more expensive in these countries than in the Netherlands. The Moroccan government asked the same question of its Dutch counterpart, because the Dutch claim to have done extensive research to justify the adjustment of benefits according to this so-called “country of residence" principle. However, the Dutch government has still not shared the results of this alleged research with Morocco despite requests. This is unusual to say the least.

For Dutch people who live in other countries, like Spain, Italy, Hungary, Greece, or Turkey, benefits are not adjusted simply because these countries belong to the European Union or are considered part of European society.

In the midst of all of this debate, ordinary Dutch Moroccans who return to Morocco to enjoy retirement or recuperate and who have spent years working in the Netherlands will be the victims. They will receive fewer benefits for which they have long paid the premiums.

Edited by Kelsey Fish

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