Landmark Judicial Blow to Abusive Grading: Fez Administrative Court Annuls “1/20” Exam Score at Fez-Meknes Law Faculty

FEZ (FesNews Media) — The Administrative Court of First Instance in Fez delivered a resounding judicial message this week aimed at curbing what students describe as “arbitrary and retaliatory grading practices” in higher education. In a definitive ruling, the court sided with a university student against a professor and the administration of a Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (Law Faculty) affiliated with a university in the Fez-Meknes region, ordering the “annulment of the administrative decision issued by the faculty awarding the plaintiff a grade of 1/20 in the Methodology exam, with all legal consequences.”

According to informed sources speaking to FesNews, the landmark judgment came after the affected student refused to accept a punitive and exclusionary score (1/20) in the “Methodology” module that threatened to derail her academic year. Taking her case before the Annulment and Compensation Chamber of the Fez Administrative Court, she filed suit against the subject professor, the university presidency, and the faculty deanship in their legal capacities, challenging the legality of the grade on the grounds of manifest abuse of pedagogical authority.

The ruling has sparked widespread debate and alert across faculties and universities in the Fez-Meknes region and throughout Morocco, as it effectively shatters the myth of “absolute immunity” behind which certain professors have long shielded exam grading from oversight. The Fez Administrative Court reaffirmed that an examination score constitutes an administrative decision subject to judicial review whenever evidence demonstrates arbitrariness, manifest error of assessment, or deviation from academic fairness.

Adding to the deterrent weight of the verdict is the remarkable speed with which the Fez Administrative Judiciary resolved the dispute—taking barely three weeks from the initial filing of the petition in early October through three swift procedural hearings before annulling the 1/20 score and compelling the university administration to restore the student’s academic rights. Legal observers note that the precedent opens the door wide for students subjected to abusive grading to seek direct redress before administrative courts.