Foreigner teachers in Morocco: beware of scams!

This is something we see a lot of on travel forums, and it’s a scam practised quite regularly by unscrupulous school heads.

So be careful if you’re offered a teaching job in a Moroccan school (usually in French).

It’s tempting, of course… a year in Morocco, all expenses paid, even if it doesn’t sound very generous, doing a job that’s not too unpleasant, who could refuse?

In reality, these tempting offers often turn out to be galleys, where the expatriate is taken hostage and forced to endure until the end of the year.

A brief overview of the situation and the “why and how”.

A major shortage of teachers in public schools

One of the first measures taken by the Benkirane government was to prohibit state school teachers from working as part-time lecturers in public schools, or even giving “private courses”. Until then, this widespread practice had been feeding the private teaching corps at reasonable prices, since it supplemented the salaries of civil servants, but in the end it was to the detriment of public education, with some teachers managing to work ‘almost’ full time in the private sector in addition to their official teaching hours, when they were often absent.

What’s more, this encouraged corruption: children had to take support classes billed by their teacher in order to get good marks.

So in 2011, when the system came to an abrupt halt, Moroccan public schools found themselves in difficulty, and had to find new teachers as a matter of urgency. In languages in particular, the French are very popular. If they’re not too expensive…

The legal framework

Like any other job, that of teacher is subject to the normal legal constraints: the employee must have a work permit, if he or she is a foreigner, and be declared to the CNSS as soon as he or she is recruited.

To obtain a work permit, you have to prove (theoretically) that an unemployed Moroccan cannot fill the position. The shortage of teachers makes this easier for public schools, but the process is still essential, and takes about two months!

Salaries on the market

As always, salaries differ depending on whether you are Moroccan or foreign, and as everywhere, whether you work in primary or secondary education. The salary scale is fairly broad, but here is a range of salaries to give you an idea, for pre-baccalaureate teacher posts only:

• average salary for a primary school teacher: 2,500 dirhams net in the public sector, 3,100 dirhams net in the private sector
• hourly rate for a temporary foreign teacher in a collège or lycée: between 250 and 350 dirhams per hour
• full-time (18 hours of teaching) at Lycée Lyautey (one of the most prestigious French school, not as expensive as international American school) : 18,400 dirhams net per month.

Remember: salaries are always expressed ‘net’, which means that income tax and C.N.S.S. contributions are deducted, but not necessarily supplementary health insurance, especially if you are applying for a separate health insurance.

And to put this into context: the legal working week is 42 hours, and the minimum wage is around 2,300 dirhams net.

The scam

The link at the bottom of the post refers to a discussion on a forum about a teaching post in Beni-Mellal. It is an example of the method used by school headmasters, of which I have had enough examples in recent months to write this post.

A salary well below the market: they take advantage of the appeal of a year’s work in Morocco to underpay (and you understand, life is cheap).

You make up for it on the other side of the bargain: often, expats will negotiate for their accommodation costs to be covered by the school. The school will then choose the flat, and the choice will be between

1. take “anything” as cheap as possible (even if it means you have to live far from your place of work)
2. overcharge for accommodation. In the example I’ve given you, a shared flat was billed 2,000 dirhams a month in a non-touristy city, and over a long period. That’s almost the price of a small independent flat, in reality.

Working illegally: the legal formalities were not completed in time. The school is falling behind, and is counting on the fact that once installed, the teacher has no choice but to continue, and spend the year on the spot.

In some cases, the colour is announced. In this case it was “a three-month trial period during which you pay your health insurance”. In other words, three months of totally undeclared work on a tourist visa. “After that, if all goes well, we’ll declare you”, so another two months of illegality at best. In practice, it’s often a case of “it’s complicated, there’s a piece of paper missing”, and you drag it out for another two or three months, before saying “it’s the end of the year, we’re not going to bother for so little”.

In reality, expats run major risks: they are not covered by their own social security after six months’ absence from the country (for Europe, maybe shorter for other countries), and they must take out a personal insurance if there is no local employment contract. Otherwise, in the event of a serious problem, they run the risk of not being covered.

To do

1. Clarify from the beginning that you want a legal employment contract, and that you will not leave without one
2. Ask for proof of the steps you have taken, which should start no later than two months before the planned date of employment (preferably three months).
3. Look for accommodation yourself, or check on forums that what you are offered is decent and within market prices.
4. Don’t dream: working in Morocco for a year is a great experience, but it doesn’t pay very well (there are plenty of local expats who need odd jobs, and the competition is fierce).
5. Draw up a precise budget, and don’t go below the limit you’ve set yourself, for whatever reason.

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