Government vows to guarantee early schooling and punish reluctant parents

During its meeting today, the cabinet will give its final decision as concerns the obligation of schooling at the age of six as well as the needed requirements to get access to the educational establishments and the means to protect them.

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• The decree is meant to enforce the constitutional right of children for schooling at the age of six and look at the legal means to punish reluctant parents.
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• Reliable sources revealed to “Echourok” that the education dossier will be high on the agenda of today’s cabinet meeting as it will focus on three key points in relation to the future of the school children and the Algerian school in general.
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• The executive decree aims at fighting illiteracy in Algeria until its complete eradication, in addition to the fight against delinquency and the exploitation of children as a workforce.
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• In this respect, the decree will establish a punishment scale and determine the relevant authorities likely to carry out investigations to probe on the causes that forced parents to breach the law. The investigations will determine whether these children were exploited for labor.
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• The education ministry will work in close collaboration with the security forces and judicial authorities to sue parents who do not comply with the law.
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• The decree will put an end to several irregularities witnessed inside educational establishments in the past, including the use of classrooms by teachers to give extra courses with money in return.
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• These practices have been widely denounced by the education ministry.
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