The Covid-19 crisis unveiled inequalities in Tunisia’s educational system, not only between public and private education, but within private education itself. With an unregulated private sector and students’ parents left to fend for themselves, the crisis also revealed the government’s disengagement from its role as regulator.
A number of associations and specialists in Tunisia have advocated for sexual education, soon to be introduced into academic curriculum beginning at primary school. The project, recently unveiled by the Ministry of Education, has sparked intense controversy although its content has yet to be revealed. Will sexual education be an entirely separate subject in schools? Who will teach it? Are teachers trained for the job?
As students headed back to school on Thursday the 15th, a looming question hung over the heads of many: what will become of the proposed education reforms this academic year? So far one major project, “The School Regains Her Children,” appears to be making progress. On September 8th, an initiative subsidized by UNICEF Tunisia and The Italian cooperation was signed by Minister of Education, Néji Jaloul. The donation of six million Tunisian dinars is designed to “strengthen the national campaign aimed at combatting school drop-out rates.” However, re-cooperating lost students is only one of the several, major issues that the Tunisian education system faces today.
