The Tunisian School System: A Multifaceted Crisis
The Tunisian school system, once considered a powerful social elevator, is currently facing a multidimensional crisis. Between massive school dropout rates, regional inequalities, pedagogical fragilities, violence, and infrastructure degradation, the national education system appears to be sinking into a spiral of difficulties that undermines its ability to fulfill its fundamental mission.
A Long-Standing Problem
We already know that the school's problems do not date back to today, even if they have intensified over the past few years. These issues are well-known to all stakeholders: parents, students, teachers, school administrators, unions, and, of course, the Ministry of Education. It seems that a sneaky plan has been established to destroy the public school system and dumb down our children.
Alarming School Dropout Rates
The Tunisian school system continues to lose thousands of students each year in a seemingly banal indifference. Behind official speeches about reforms and modernizing the education system, the numbers tell a different story: a massive school dropout rate that threatens the future of an entire generation.
According to various data published in recent years by the Ministry of Education and national studies, between 80,000 and 100,000 students drop out of school each year in Tunisia. This represents a rate of 7.9% in secondary school compared to 0.8% in primary school, according to the Ministry of Education's statistics for the 2023-2024 school year.
A Critical Situation for a Country That Has Long Prioritized Education
This phenomenon affects schools and high schools in particular, where failure and repetition rates remain high. However, it takes root as early as primary school, where the first fragilities accumulate. In the interior regions (Kasserine, Siliana, Le Kef, Jendouba, Sidi Bouzid, Kairouan, and Gafsa), distance, poverty, and isolation continue to weigh heavily on children's education. Some students walk several kilometers each day to reach schools that are often isolated, poorly equipped, and insufficiently maintained.
Transportation Obstacles
School transportation remains a major obstacle. In several rural areas, the lack of regular transportation or its high cost pushes many families to withdraw their children from school. This phenomenon affects girls in particular, who are more exposed to security and mobility constraints.
Pedagogical and Structural Failures
In addition to these difficulties, another structural problem arises: the lack of pedagogical support. Teachers, often faced with overcrowded classes and difficult working conditions, do not always have the necessary means to ensure individualized follow-up of students. Continuous training and pedagogical support remain insufficient in many cases, which affects the quality of teaching.
However, beyond daily pedagogical support, a deeper problem continues to erode the Tunisian school system: teacher training itself. Despite efforts by the Regional Centers for Continuous Teacher Training (Crefoc), initial training remains marked by structural limitations. The abolition of Normal Schools for Teachers (ENI) has been a major turning point, replacing a practical and professional immersion model with a university education deemed excessively theoretical.
This deficit in pedagogical preparation on the ground has directly contributed to the decline in student performance in basic subjects (reading, writing, and math), the increase in school dropout rates, and the progressive devaluation of the teacher's status, which is now marked by the massive use of untrained substitutes. In response to this finding, the Ministry has attempted to react by introducing a degree in education sciences, aiming to reintroduce more alternation and practical stages from the university curriculum.
Criticisms of School Programs
School programs are also subject to numerous criticisms. Considered too heavy and sometimes disconnected from the social and economic realities of students, they contribute to demotivation and dropout. Many stakeholders in the sector call for a deep overhaul of the content to better adapt it to the current world and the needs of learners.
Baccalaureate Results Confirm Persistent Imbalances
Baccalaureate results confirm these persistent imbalances. In recent sessions, governorates such as Jendouba, Kasserine, Kairouan, Siliana, Sidi Bouzid, and Le Kef have recorded success rates often below the national average, while coastal regions and the Greater Tunis and Sfax have consistently exceeded 50-60% to reach 70% in Sfax. These disparities reflect deep inequalities in terms of infrastructure, support, and school environment.
Infrastructure, Inequalities, and New Threats
Another silent but equally determining threat is eroding the Tunisian school system: the aging of school infrastructure. A significant portion of the educational park dates back several decades. According to estimates often mentioned in sectoral reports, more than half of primary schools are over 50 years old. Many of them suffer from chronic maintenance: dilapidated buildings, damaged roofs, inadequate sanitation, and a lack of spaces adapted to learning or sports activities.
In some rural schools, minimum safety and comfort conditions are no longer guaranteed. The aging of schools, combined with inadequate maintenance, exacerbates the sense of abandonment and further weakens the link between the student and the school. Infrastructure, intended to support learning, becomes an additional factor in dropout.
Budget Cuts and Violence
On the resource side, a critical factor deserves to be highlighted: the education budget. While it historically represented more than 30% of the state budget, it has undergone a progressive decline over the years to stand at around 10% today, with more than 90% allocated to salaries. This relative decline, in a context of growing needs, weighs heavily on the quality of the public education service.
To this is added a more worrying reality: the rise of violence in all its forms. Student aggression, tensions with teachers, and recurring incidents in schools reflect a degradation of the school climate. The school, instead of being a space of stability and protection, increasingly reflects the surrounding social tensions.
In the same vein, the consumption of drugs among young people raises great concerns. According to certain studies and social surveys, around 15% of students would have already been exposed to the consumption of psychoactive substances in various forms. This phenomenon reveals a growing vulnerability of a part of the school-going youth.
A School in Search of a New Breath
Thus, the Tunisian public school system faces an accumulation of crises: social, pedagogical, structural, and even moral. Despite efforts made, results remain below expectations.
Reforms follow one another, but problems persist. And behind the statistics of school dropout, success, or failure, a deeper reality emerges: that of a school struggling to fulfill its fundamental mission, and of a society that sees a part of its youth silently slipping away.
To be continued.
Brahim OUESLATI
