National Education Ministry: “Firm Warnings Against Excessive Use Of School Supplies”

The Ministry of National Education has ordered its executive directors, through the heads of educational institutions for the three cycles “primary, middle, and secondary”, to continue implementing measures related to reducing schoolbag weight on the ground.

This is to be achieved by engaging extensively in the effort to rationalize the purchase of school supplies and avoid waste, in commitment to the directives of the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, which call for the gradual reform of the educational system until the desired goal of enhancing education and achieving a quality school is met.

In a dispatch issued on July 30, the General Directorate of Education at the supervisory ministry directed firm instructions to provincial education directors and heads of educational institutions.

They were requested to continue preparations for the new school year, which is only a month away, and to begin implementing procedural measures aimed at rationalizing the purchase of school supplies while staying completely away from extravagance and waste.

This follows one of the commitments launched by President Tebboune at the end of 2019, aimed at reducing schoolbag weight while continuing the same effort within the series of ongoing educational reforms affecting the three cycles “primary, middle, and secondary”.

On this basis, the General Directorate of Education noted that a unified list of school supplies for the 2026/2027 season has been launched for the three stages. It emphasized that this list serves as the approved reference and the minimum requirement to be followed in determining school supplies, according to the requirements of implementing educational programs for each stage, level, and track for the general and technological secondary education stage.

From this perspective, the same departments called on their provincial directors to consider pedagogical, social, and health dimensions during implementation. They requested that heads of educational institutions be informed of the absolute necessity to carefully and accurately monitor and follow up on the field application of the list’s content, ensuring the desired goals are achieved.

In the same context, the Directorate informed all provincial education directorates that this launched unified “list” primarily aims to rationalize the use of school supplies, particularly notebooks, a significant portion of which remains unused at the end of the school year. This contributes to reducing waste, decreasing the financial burden on Algerian families, and preserving student health by lightening the weight of the schoolbag.

Accordingly, given the importance of this list in regulating the acquisition of school supplies and limiting them to the essentials, the Directorate ordered provincial education directors to ensure its absolute generalization across all educational institutions and to publish it through all available means, enabling teachers to review it and commit to its content.