A standoff broke out between a professor from the Faculty of Medicine of Oujda and a student. The teacher has indeed filed a complaint against her student because of the publication of a post on Facebook in which he expressed his opinion on an exam that was much talked about.
The student was summoned by the police services and heard by the King’s prosecutor, who decided to release him and prosecute him in a state of freedom. This action ” moved from the professor sparked a protest from future doctors in Oujda.
Dozens of students organized a solidarity sit-in on Wednesday morning in the hall of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Oujda to support one of their comrades, sued by a professor from the same faculty following a the publication of a message on her personal Facebook account, considered by the complainant to be defamatory.
” An investigation was launched against her after the teacher filed her complaint. When he went to the police, his phone, which is one of his work tools, was confiscated from him (…) All this because he expressed his opinion on the Arthritis examination and Second semester rheumatism, on a Facebook post where he raised questions about the content of the exam, in a respectful way, without referring to the professor or criticizing her personally. This examination has also caused a great controversy in the national medical community. Many teachers, medical residents, interns and students have expressed their astonishment at the imbalance in this test and the failure to respect well-established educational standards.“, lamented the Council of Medical Students of Oujda in a press release addressed to MoroccoLatestNews UK.
The protesters held up numerous placards condemning the teacher’s action against the student.
Mohamed Amine Bouziani, a third-year student at the faculty of Oujda and vice-president of external affairs of the Student Council, told us that this approach adopted by the professor to file a complaint against a student for having criticized his exam was ” unprecedented in the history of the faculty“.
In a statement to MoroccoLatestNewshe pointed out that the message in question signaled “a medical error in the fourth-year test, which did not meet educational standards and made students at this level unable to answer the questions asked”.
He said the post was widely shared on social media and drew a lot of criticism before it was posted by the sued student, and insisted it did not mention the complainant.
In this complaint, Bouziani sees a repression of the freedom of expression of students to speak out on the problems they face within the faculty. The Student Council is examining the possibility of sending correspondence detailing these problems to several officials at Mohammed 1st University and the Ministry of Higher Education, as well as calling for an evaluation of the examination in question by a specialized committee, he added.
In addition to showing their solidarity with the student targeted by the teacher’s complaint, the demonstrators also condemned the summoning of two other students and their guardians by the management of the faculty, because of their interaction with the message of the student sued, as well as with the results announced on Wednesday and which were described as catastrophic.
In reaction to the information contained in the press release from the Student Council of the Faculty of Medicine of Oujda, Khalid Siraj, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Mohammed 1st University of Oujda, declared that the management of the faculty was not responsible for the complaint filed by a teacher in a personal capacity against a student. He specified that the intervention of the direction of the faculty in this matter would be limited to a friendly dialogue aimed at finding a solution.
The dean of the faculty further pointed out that his office had received a complaint from the teacher concerned. As for the other two students, they had been summoned in accordance with the procedures in force, one of them being accompanied by his tutor. However, he denied having sent a summons to the latter.
Regarding the exam behind the protests, the dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Oujda said that it had led to the success of 90% of the students who had taken it, while the 10% remaining would have another chance at the catch-up session.
The pedagogical question is no longer relevant and no student will be harmed either during the ordinary session or the remedial session, he said.
According to the communiqué of the Student Council of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, the student concerned will be prosecuted for “dissemination and distribution of false allegations and facts using information systems with the aim of undermining the privacy of persons or to defame them”. A first hearing is set for July 18.