Dozens of parents gathered earlier this week in front of a middle school in Kenita to condemn a decision by the school to remove at least 40 students who have not been fully vaccinated from their classrooms, a practice that parents say not only jeopardizes the medical data of students but also risks discriminating between the vaccinated and unvaccinated in schools.
On Tuesday, an administrator in Kentira’s infamous Takaddoum middle school walked around classrooms, calling out the names of students who aren’t fully inoculated and demanding they leave classes immediately.
“They called me by my full name in front of my classmates and took me out of the class. They took us to the yard and they told us that we should go get our second jabs to be able to get back to our classes,” Hamza, a 14 years-old student, told Hespress, with the permission of his parents.
An older classmate took Hamza, and a group of students aged 12-15 to a mobile vaccination center Ben Abbad, near the school to get their second jabs.
When the parents showed up to stop their children from getting vaccinated without permission, the school administration said it had acted on a decision “coming from above.”
Takaddoun school said, in a statement to Hespress EN, that they received a decision from the regional directorate to inform students who got their first shots that they are obliged to get their second jabs as soon as possible.
The school denied it had made students leave classes to get vaccinated.
Asking for a copy of the claimed decision, the spokesperson said that they received it through a phone call and no official papers were involved.
The ministry of education said they didn’t issue any official decision about the matter, as it stressed that vaccination for students will never be mandatory.
“The minister of education made it clear that neither the first shot nor the second or the third one will ever be mandatory for students. We continue to encourage vaccination among students but we will never force it,” said a spokesperson from the education ministry to Hespress English.
Ambiguity around unvaccinated students and physical access to schools emerged in mid-October when Morocco mandated vaccine passes in public and private spaces, but a statement by the minister of education made it clear that no student should be marginalized due to his or her personal choice of getting vaccinated or not.
74 percent of Moroccan students aged 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated, presenting one of the most vaccinated age targets in the Kingdom, according to the National Scientific Committee.
The scientific committee said, in a statement to Hespress Eng, it is illegal to exploit children’s medical information and share it in public spaces like classrooms, especially considering what it may lead to from psychological effects on students.
“I assure you that vaccination information of underage students isn’t supposed to be exploited or shared by anyone. And there’s no official framework that legalizes this process in Morocco. It is completely illegal.”
Mandating the COVID-19 vaccine is still a controversial topic two years after the emergence of the virus in Wuhan, China. WHO said on Tuesday mandatory vaccinations against the coronavirus are an “absolute last resort,” and only applicable when all feasible options to improve vaccination uptake have been exhausted.
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