Morocco's education system remains undecided on conducting exams virtually or in-person

Morocco’s education system has yet to decide on whether exams will take place in-person or remotely, with the exam season fast approaching in mid-January.

Morocco’s Minister of Higher Education, Abdelatif Miraoui, has urged all education establishments to conduct exams remotely until further notice.

The official made the request to the heads of universities saying that “the country has not yet overcome the risk of a new COVID-19 wave.”

However, a Hespress source from within the scientific committee confirmed that it is likely exams will be held in-person, similar to what happened the year before when the emergence of the delta variant coincided with the students’ exams.

Associate Professor of English at the Higher School of Technology in Laayoune, Limame Barbouchi, told Hespress EN in a statement that “the recent tougher sanitary precautions announced by the Moroccan government following the rapid spread of Omicron worldwide have brought back the possibility of running virtual classes and exams at the universities to guarantee pedagogical continuity.”

“At the time being, as it is difficult to evaluate the pandemic situation in Morocco, most universities have modified their exam dates to have Fall semester exams on-campus before the Fall vacation,” he added.

Barbouchi said that if there is an increase in positive cases, it is very likely that classes will be conducted online in the upcoming semesters to ensure the safety of faculty, staff, and students.

As for remote exams, the Associate Professor said “online exams are debatable as they don’t guarantee the credibility of students’ answers,” he noted, adding, “However, according to different academic studies and researches, including an international conference on Distance Education we held at Higher School of Technology in Laayoune last June, online exams can be possibly held making use of the recent technological developments to reduce the cheating online as possible as one can.”

In response to Hespress EN’s question about recent technological advancements, the Associate Professor gave recommendations, such as: “the use of HD webcams to be imposed on students, new applications to help teachers create questions randomly, as well as new technology to allow students to control their access to other websites when taking online exams, such as Moodle,” he continued.

Currently, Moroccan universities haven’t decided on the format of exams but have begun instituting stricter measures to curtail the spread of the Omicron variant, including the control of students’ identities and vaccination passes.