Morocco Weighs School Closures as COVID-19 Cases Rise, Parents Express Concern

Parents of students, particularly those who have chosen face-to-face learning (90%), are worried, given the risk of school closures, reports EcoActu, adding that since September 2, the start of the school year, some 229 schools accommodating 128,599 students have been closed in the country, after positive cases were reported there, according to Education Minister Saaid Amzazi. These figures are not alarming but sufficiently telling not to rule out the risk of school clusters forming.

With a daily average of more than 1,000 new Covid-19 cases, with a peak of 1,784 new cases on October 14, the epidemiological picture of the economic capital is the most worrying, forcing schools to open their doors only on October 5, after a month of tightening security measures.

"Every day, when I learn of the daily Covid-19 report, I seriously ask myself the question: tomorrow, will I take my children to school or not?" confides a parent, however, challenged by the advice of pediatricians and child psychiatrists who had called in a letter addressed to Saaid Amzazi, for an urgent return of children to school to alleviate their psychological suffering, due to the lack of social ties because of Covid-19. But between the safety and psychosocial balance of their children, the hearts of parents continue to waver, concludes the same source.