West London Moroccan Widadia School - Far from Being Supplementary!

This time last week, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in collaboration with the Partnership of Supplementary Schools in the Borough organised a very special evening to award local supplementary schools, including the half-dozen - or so - Moroccan, for their hard work over the last academic year.

On average, most participating supplementary schools were represented by five to six pupils besides a volunteer, except for West London Moroccan Widadia – Avondale and West London Moroccan Widadia – Grenfell, two sides of the same coin, run by the same “philanthropist”, Mr. Ali Lazizi.

On paper these two schools nominated six and eight pupils respectively; however, when their names were called out, the children in question were nowhere to be seen.

The painful irony is that according to a report published by the Migrant and Refugee Communities Forum (MRCF) in January 08, Mr. Lazizi’s Widadia is said to cater for the educational needs of 275 children, higher than the average state school in the UK.

Incidentally, Mr. Lazizi was an MRCF management committee member when the report was published. The other important factor is that Mrs. Myriam Cherti, who was a co-ordinator at the same organisation at the time, would have known about the exaggerated figures, given the thorough research we are led to believe she had conducted in preparation for her Phd thesis - which focused on the Moroccan community in London and, the much-talked about and generously funded, Memories of Morocco in Britain.

Was it a fleeting lapse of memory on her part? Did her young memory fail her? Was it an oversight? Or did she conveniently forget to verify the figures?

On consultation with the relevant authorities and local Moroccans, including parents, who knew Mr. Lazizi personally and have often visited his supplementary schools, it was established that the number of children on his register was no more than forty, with sixteen to eighteen being the average attendance.

Once again, in view of Mrs. Myriam Cherti’s position at the time of publication, she would have known about the actual number of children attending West London Widadia classes, otherwise, she cannot, with all due respect, be much of an authority on the Moroccan community in London, namely, in North Kensington where she was based.

The community is at pains to answer the following questions:
How could Mr. Lazizi’s school roll plummet from 275 to 20, as most local Moroccans would testify, within a year? Or did Mrs. Cherti get the figures wrong? Rather bizarre given the huge margin!

What is baffling about this story is how could Mr. Lazizi, a man who has enjoyed the support of the Moroccan Consulate for so long in the form of teaching staff and teaching material, commit such an unpatriotic act and intentionally, it seems, mislead the British and the Moroccan authorities as well as the community he claims to serve?

Equally baffling is how could Mrs. Cherti, a woman that was entrusted with capturing and preserving our memories in Britain, receiving so much money in the process, both from Morocco and the UK, be so forgetful?

Click here if you would like to read the report published by MRCF in Jan 08.

There is only one way to move our community forward; that is to be honest, fair and truthful to yourselves. Making mistakes like these will diminish the credibility of our community and our future generations. You should be role models for them. I hope that this will clarify the right path for the future.

Not so vivid and clear ones then are these memories of morocco in Britain! and certainly not a truthful,honest representation from Mr Lazizi either.Please stop acting without thinking of the consequences and if you have any integrity left in you please step aside .That will restore some faith in you.