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Moroccan police use water cannon to disperse teacher protest

April 26, 2019 at 3:02 am

A Moroccan teacher walks through a water spray from security forces’ water cannon during a demonstration calling for permanent contracts within the national education system, outside parliament headquarters in the capital Rabat on 25 April 2019. [ AFP/ Getty]

Moroccan police used water cannons to disperse a protest of thousands of young teachers in Rabat, the capital, on Thursday, according to witnesses and a video posted online, Reuters reports.

Teachers have been staging a series of protests and strikes to demand an end to renewable contracts in favour of permanent jobs that offer civil service benefits, including a better retirement pension.

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The Education Ministry said last month that teachers who had instigated a strike would be fired along with trainees who joined them, further enraging them.

Morocco, which has avoided the turmoil seen by other countries during and after the Arab Spring of 2011, regularly sees protests, though they rarely draw several thousand or involve confrontations with police.