Algeria: 2015 Session of Baccalaureate Exam Slated For June 7th

Reliable sources told Echorouk that the national office of exams and contests ONEC is seriously considering to move forward the date of the 2015 session of the Baccalaureate exam in Algeria.

The same sources indicated that the relevant office had set the date of the 2015 session of the Baccalaureate exam for the 7^th of next June until the 11^th of the same month.

The move has been dictated by the difficult weather conditions marked by high temperatures during the summer season in Algeria’s southern and far southern regions in addition to the advent during the same period of the holy month of fasting of Ramadhan, the same sources added.

The change in the date set for the 2015 session of the BAC exam has baffled the Education Unions as the National Education Minister, Nouria Benghebrit, announced at the start of the 2014 – 2015 new academic year that the 2015 session of the Baccalaureate exam was slated as usual for June 14^th.

The decision has been on the whole badly received by independent Trade Unions which argued that they had not been consulted beforehand by the relevant authorities and described such a baffling decision as “unproductive and unilateral”.

In a related development, Mrs Nouria Benghebrit announced lately in Algiers that a sector-based working group comprising representatives from the ministry of Education and the ministry of higher education and scientific research is currently working out the specifications for the reinforcement of High Teacher School (ESE) so to “meet the growing needs in teachers.”

Mrs Benghebrit affirmed that the Ministry of higher education and scientific research “plans to scale up the number of these Schools to meet the recruitment needs.”

Underlining the current Teacher Schools’ “incapacity” to live up to the needs of the sector, which uses direct recruitment as exceptional measure, the education minister said that her department will strive to give “larger dimension” to the training through the drafting of a document of reference, defining the strict criteria the teacher should fulfill.

Among the measures intend to hoist the level of the teacher and his professionalism, the same official stressed that training courses have been run during the summer season for the newly recruited teachers before they join their positions.

“These teachers will duly receive training courses in parallel with their daily work”, she underscored.