Algeria: Baccalaureate students stage street protests

Scores of candidates for next June’s Baccalaureate exam which opens the way for higher university studies, took the streets on Sunday to voice their anger at the Education Ministry’s recent decision to rescind the traditional spring school holidays and to call for the scrapping of all exams set for the second semester of the school year and for the setting up of a “threshold” to courses ahead of the decisive Baccalaureate exam just a few days after the long-drawn out strike observed by teachers at the call of three autonomous Education Unions over socio-professional claims.

However, the protesting students who were intent on converging massively on the Education Ministry’s premises in the Ruisseau district in central Algiers were turned back by an impressive security apparatus deployed in the whole area.

Most of the protesters were rounded up by security forces who put them on board several buses parked nearby which took them coercively back home.

The secondary school end of year cycle students hailing from several high-schools of different districts of Algiers notably from Aïn Naâdja, Kouba, Hussein Dey, Dar El Beida and Bab Ezzouar, wanted to stage a sit-in in front of the Education Ministry premises to press for their demands.

As a result of the failure of their projected sit-in, some of the protesting students told Echorouk that they have decided to shun classes altogether and observe an open – ended strike similarly to the teachers’ recent protracted work stoppage until their demands are fulfilled by the authorities concerned in order to be allowed to brace up for the upcoming 2014 session of the crucial Baccalaureate exam in the most appropriate schooling conditions.