Wali of Oujda Giving Students a Final Exam on the First Day of Class:( No Comment!
11:23:07 AM Saturday Oct 3, 2009
I think he tried to do it the western way, with good intentions, you know, when a mayor kicks off the new school year by visiting schools and presenting what he plans to offer students and teachers in the coming year (Mayor Menino comes to my mind since I live in Boston). Or like the good old President Bush visiting a school on 9/11 reading books for kids. But this honorable mayor of Oujda, who I heard is quiet a hard-working guy, instead of giving the students a quick small talk of cheerfulness, encouragements, hope and wishes for a great school year, and urging students to respect teachers, each other and their religion, he had to be awkward in my opinion, put students on the spot and give them a final exam at the first day of class.
On the flip side, although it's a micro sample moment, but one can be easily judgmental and blame the students for their lack of good answers, and there might be work that needs to be done by each student to improve themselves without a doubt, just as one can blame the mayor for his obscure questions, however if the school or family do not prepare a nurturing environment for learning it will be hard to answer future questions. A family should provide for its household at least one diverse bookshelf and quiet reading area. Likewise, a school should provide a library and reading room used both by students and teachers. The city (and charities) should provide public libraries used by poor and prince. The mayor was asking the student what the word "environment" means and how come their language skills are unsatisfactory. I hope the mayor will take a lesson away from his visit and that is to prepare a better environment for these students. That translate into the mayor taking the weakness of the educational system seriously and taking it to Rabat.
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I guess justice prevails after all. This mayor got the boot recently from the King for reasons traced back to alleged corruption. This video definitely revealed to me a person undeserving to care for the youth, the foundation and hope of Oujda.
Can the mayor really do anything? Schools, I think, are under the jurisdiction of the ministry of education. Maybe this is all a ploy to take some power from the ministry.
The poor mayor doesn't have a lot he can do. At least they didn't cheat and feed the mayor questions and the students answers to make things look good :)
Is that Mr. Ben Hamza I see behind the man in the gray suit?