In this context, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Khalid Aït Taleb, and the Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, Abdellatif Miraoui, presented presentations detailing the efforts and measures taken by the government in response to this situation.
The overall reform of the health sector aims to establish Morocco’s medical sovereignty, affirmed the two ministers, stressing that the offer presented by the government to students is “exceptional” and meets most of their demands.
In this regard, Mr. Miraoui detailed the government’s efforts to contribute to the development of solutions resulting from dialogue and find effective responses in order to restore the normal functioning of faculties, in particular through “positive interaction with various authorities, associations, speakers and actors who proposed solutions to overcome this situation.
In this sense, he highlighted the meeting chaired by the Head of Government, Aziz Akhannouch, to evaluate the process of training reform in the field of health, as well as the government’s mediation initiative which made it possible to dispel many misunderstandings surrounding this issue and present serious proposals to overcome the difficulties encountered by these faculties.
Mr. Miraoui also reviewed many key points of the students’ demands, as well as the government’s proposals to respond to them.
The topics covered include, among others, the duration of training to obtain the degree of doctor of medicine, the supervision of theses, hospital training spaces, the number of new enrollees in public faculties, training in medical specialty (third cycle ), the legal status of residents, compensation granted to trainees, laboratory equipment as well as the supply of equipment and raw materials for practical training.
In addition, the manager presented the government’s commitments, conditioned by the resumption of exams and the return to normal in the faculties, namely the revision of disciplinary sanctions, the modification of the transcript to replace zero grades with those obtained during the catch-up session of the first semester, and the possibility of completing the training after passing the exams with a schedule of hospital internships in order to make up for the boycotted periods from the next academic year, while ensuring that all internships are completed with their expected duration.
For his part, Mr. Aït Taleb recalled that a series of meetings with representatives of students in medicine, pharmacy and odontology have been held since December 2023, in the presence of the various parties concerned in the health and education sectors. higher, to discuss all demands within joint technical committees and explain the government measures adopted.
The government has taken measures to improve and extend hospital training spaces to all territorial health institutions, and strengthen the supervision of hospital internships by including supervisors from health institutions, he continued. The government has proposed increasing the allowances granted to trainee students in the third, fourth and fifth years of medicine and pharmacy, as well as increasing the allowances for students in the final year, he detailed.
Addressing the social aspect and health coverage, Mr. Ait Taleb noted that the reforms were accompanied by social measures, such as compulsory health insurance for students, the establishment of an IT platform at the ministry to manage compensation, allowing their monthly payment from January 2025, as well as the provision of adequate meals for students on call in coordination with the hospital establishments concerned.
Concerning the restructuring of the third cycle of medical studies, the minister indicated that a draft decree was presented, including the maintenance of the internship course for two years, the creation of the status of “assistant” with an equivalent monthly salary at index 509, and the adoption of a direct selective system for access to a teaching career for assistants. He also specified that the statuses of residents have been unified and that the duration of commitment has been reduced from 8 to 3 years.
“These reforms reflect the government’s efforts to improve the quality of medical training and promote the national health system, thereby ensuring high quality health services for all citizens,” he assured.
During their interventions, the deputies of the majority groups considered that the government had interacted “positively” with this problem, leaving no doubt about its desire to reach a solution, while calling on the students to “demonstrate wisdom” and to get involved in the social protection project aimed at strengthening the pillars of the social state.
For their part, opposition deputies insisted on the need to show flexibility and resort to mediation to close this file.