In the face of teachers' strikes, Moroccan government and unions reach agreement on wage hike
Following strikes launched more than two months ago by the National Coordination for the Education Sector, an agreement between the unions and the Moroccan government came to light that brings a general increase in teachers' salaries of 1,500 dirhams, implemented in two phases in 2024 and 2025.
The agreement also includes a number of specific salary increases, ranging from 500 dirhams to 1,000 dirhams, for certain categories of teachers and civil servants in the sector, in addition to the revaluation of certain benefits.
On the government side, the agreement was signed by the Minister of National Education, Preschool and Sports, Chakib Benmoussa, the Minister Delegate for the Budget, Fouzi Lekjaa, and the Minister of Economic Inclusion, Younes Sekkouri. On the trade union side, representatives of the Moroccan Labour Union (UMT), the General Union of Moroccan Workers (UGTM), the Democratic Confederation of Labour (CDT) and the Democratic Federation of Labour (FDT) signed the agreement.
The two parties agreed on an increase of 1,000 dirhams per month in the allowances granted to officials classified outside the scale, starting from the fifth step, as well as an additional monthly allowance of 500 dirhams granted to qualified secondary school teachers.
This agreement also provides for the creation of a supplementary allowance of 500 dirhams per month for pedagogical administrators and a supplementary allowance of 500 dirhams per month for administrative and technical assistants.
The resolution decided to increase the allowance for the correction of exams. Pending the fixing of the amount of these allowances per copy, the two parties agreed on the minimum price received by the teachers in charge of correcting national and regional exams, which was estimated at 1,000 dirhams.
As for support hours or overtime, an increase of 30% of the compensation was decided. In addition, overtime is no longer compulsory, but optional, according to the agreement signed by the Ministry of Education and the unions. This represents one of the important demands of Moroccan teachers.
Also, the two parties agreed to revise the promotion system by reducing the number of years of seniority required for certain categories. Similarly, managers in charge of administrative missions will be granted full benefits related to these functions.
Another of the decisions approved in the agreement is to grant, on an exceptional basis and for a limited duration, the possibility of changing posts to educational guidance and planning advisers, as well as to bursars, classified in exceptional grade (out of scale). They can thus join the inspectorate under conditions to be specified at a later date.
Primary school teachers, classified in scale 10, but who were initially integrated into scale 9, and who have been in post since 1 January 2023, will receive four years' seniority. This puts a definitive end to the "cell 9" problem.
Likewise, educational administrators and educational planning and guidance counsellors, promotion 2022 and 2023, who have completed two years of training, will receive seniority in order to move up to the off-scale grade. While civil servants with 20 years of seniority will be granted 4 years, and 3 years for those who have accumulated between 10 and 20 years of seniority.
The agreement also deals with the regularisation of the situation of teachers, teaching assistants and administrative assistants who have been integrated for the first time in scale grades 7 and 8, at the second step. This measure also concerns officials who retired between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2023.
The unions and the government have also agreed to continue and support the implementation of the framework law on education reform, in particular the generalisation of the pioneer school by 2027. This requires teachers to mobilise more strongly in favour of this reform and to commit themselves to working together for quality education and teaching for all Moroccan pupils. In the meantime, the Ministry will continue to work on the unified status of civil servants, with the adoption of the other points that do not have a financial impact on the state budget.
Despite this progress in resolving the outstanding issues in the education sector in Morocco, this agreement did not guarantee an end to the strike movement.
