Tinfidine : Parents boycott a primary school to protest against its poor condition

Parents in Tinfidine, a village in the Beni-Mellal-Khénifra, are boycotting their local primary school to protest against the conditions in which their children study.

Since Monday, they have decided to stop their children from attending the school which, has only two classrooms, as sources told Yabiladi. The lack of classrooms has reportedly affected the learning process of these students who unlike others in the Kingdom, attend school for less than 3 hours a day.

Two classrooms and 170 students

«Parents decided to prevent their children from going to school because of two main problems», Hussain Mahrouk from the parent’s association in Tinfidine told Yabiladi. «The school has only two classrooms which forces these children to study for only 2 hours and a half a day», he stressed, adding that «it is not enough in comparison to the number of courses covered by the syllabus».

The school’s facilities create a bigger a problem, especially when considering the growing number of students. «The school houses six grades and the number of kids enrolled is growing every year», argued Mahrouk who insisted that the association has tried in vain to reach the people in charge to solve the problem.  

Indeed, more than 170 students attend the local establishment and it is the third day in a row that they have been missing classes. «Less than three hours a day is not enough», said Mahjoub, a father who has also prevented his kids from attending school, in an attempt to pressure the authorities into finding a solution for the Tinifdine kids.

But to overcome the tricky situation, teachers in the Tinfidine school adopted a particular schedule. This was explained by the head of the parents’ association who told Yabiladi that «teachers came up with the idea of dividing their day to three classes to cover all grades».

However, one of the currently existing classrooms gets partially operational by winter because of the rains and snow, added the same source.

Building a classroom

The initiative conducted by the Tinfidine inhabitants came as a response to the situation that has been ongoing for more than one year. Sources from the school told Yabiladi that there is nothing they can do about the problem.

«There was a third classroom in the establishment that was demolished one year ago as it was about to collapse», a source from the Tinfidine school told yabiladi on Thursday.

«The school contacted the commune which is the only body that can build an additional classroom for the students», clarified the same source, adding that unfortunately «the commune said it doesn’t have the means for that».

The same idea was conveyed by Khalid Abou Nassr, head of the Tinfidine Association for local development, who stressed that the NGO «sent a letter to the commune and the authorities in charge but received the same answer».

Abou Nassr took the opportunity to tell Yabiladi that the boycott campaign was initiated by mothers who rallied on Monday in the village to protest against the conditions in which their children study.

But for him another problem is angering parents in Tinfidine. «Every student must be granted 100 dirhams a month as it is suggested by the Ministry of Education but kids in Tinfidine do not benefit from that».

According to the activist the program is entitled «Tissir». The same problem was raised by the parent’s association in the village which complained about the fact that other students in the region do benefit from the program.