Morocco Mandates Masks for Primary School Students in French Schools Amid COVID-19 Surge

In a letter addressed to parents on Monday, November 30, 2020, the Lycée International André Malraux in Rabat informed parents of this decision, which excludes only preschool children. The school authorities accompanied the correspondence with a circular from the health authorities, to justify this measure.

This circular invited any institution manager to respect the health measures, including the wearing of masks and physical distancing, under penalty of seeing their establishments closed and being forced to impose distance learning, a measure that does not have the unanimous support of parents.

This health discipline risks creating misunderstandings, as the health protocol of the Ministry of Education requires masks for students over 10 years old. The WHO, for its part, requires mask wearing for children aged 6 to 11. Several cases of contamination have been recorded in some schools of the French mission. This is the case of the Lycée Descartes, which had to close for 60 days after the discovery of a series of cases of contamination.