The proposal was under study at the executive level, which finally rendered its decision: The prices of textbooks will not change.
The announcement was made by the government spokesman, Mustafa Baitas, during the press briefing following the government council meeting this Thursday, June 23 in Rabat.
The executive will strive to find solutions with the publishers who had submitted a request to the government to revise upwards the prices of school books, recalling precisely that the latter have been frozen, for the most part, for two decades, and do not follow for a long time, the ascending course of the costs of paper and the various inputs intervening in the production, specified the minister.
In an earlier press briefing, Baitas confirmed that the government had received a request from publishers for the price increase of school books, following the rise in the price of raw materials, which affects the costs of book production.
On the same subject, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Nadia Fettah Alaoui, had indicated before the representatives of the Nation that after having taken note of the request of the publishers, the government initiated a meeting of the interministerial follow-up committee and price control, chaired by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Professionals justified the request for an increase in the price of textbooks, by the 110% increase in the cost of paper and printing, recalled the Minister, noting that the textbooks concerned by the proposal for this increase concern the primary and preparatory, and are 70% of the National Initiative for Human Development as part of the “One Million Schoolbags” operation launched by King Mohammed VI in 2009, currently covering more than 4.5 million students, at a cost of 250 million dirhams.
It should be noted that the prices of school books are fixed by the State and any revision or modification must imperatively go through the Executive box.
.