Benghabrit: Where Have The 70 Million Printed School Textbooks Gone?

National Education Minister Nouria Benghabrit on Sunday accused some traders and brokers of being behind the school book crisis, which marked the social comeback this year.

During an inspection visit to her sector in Chlef province, western Algeria, the minister spoke about numerous cases of sale of school textbooks in inappropriate spaces such as warehouses and popular markets under the sway of venal traders and brokers. 

She thus wondered about the whereabouts of the 70 million school books printed and distributed this year.

To fend off a repetition of the textbook crisis scenario, the national education minister  affirmed that the educational sector was gearing up early to discuss the contents of new books and correct errors over the next three months before starting the process of printing new textbooks by the advent of the New Year.

Ms. Benghabrit also talked about the dilemma of overcrowding within the school rooms.

The Minister also pointed to the need of integrating those categories of pupils with specific needs in the education system, with a view to providing them with the appropriate care.

The assignment of special classes to this category of pupils aims to prepare them for future integration into ordinary classes, Benghabrit underlined in her speech, on the sidelines of a visit to a classroom  of children with specific needs at the primary school of Martyr Senouci Maàmar at the Nasr district of Chlef, signaling an ongoing joint coordination with the Ministry of National Solidarity, Family and Women’s condition, with a view to ensuring the development of training activities for the benefit of teachers on integrated education, she said.

She highlighted the inclusion of this measure (training) in the context of the need felt for a professional and competent human resource for the care of this social category, within the framework of the principle of equal opportunities for all the social categories of all regions of the province.

Speaking at a press briefing at the headquarters of the Governorship, the Minister of National Education announced the opening of the digital platform for the recruitment of teachers on waiting lists, starting from 6 November, for the primary cycle, until the end of the year, which will see the opening of the platforms for the middle and secondary cycles in 2018.

Mrs Benghabrit, who admitted the existence of certain lapses in the preparation of waiting lists, stated that this was behind the delay in the smooth launching of this teachers’ digital enrollment platform.

The minister began her inspection visit to the province with the inauguration of two primary schools in the Boukellal and Ouled Mohamed in Chlef city center, aimed at curtailing the class overload in some local schools.

According to figures provided by the Director of Education of the province, the average occupation of a classroom in the middle educational cycle in Chlef is 46 to 48 pupils, a figure which the minister explained by the steady population growth in the region, and the recorded hike in the school year’s repetition rate involving many lazy pupils.