National Education: “Raising School Age To 7 Years And Only 3 Subjects In Curriculum”

The Algerian Union of Education Workers hastened the reform of the educational system by reconsidering educational programs, especially the curricula of the primary stage, which is the basis for the rest of the educational stages.

The Secretary-General of the Algerian Union of Education Workers, Belamri Mohamed, told “Echorouk” that his union put forth a set of proposals, during the bilateral meeting that brought them together with the minister, beginning with diagnosing the causes of the deficiencies and a radical reform of the public school, through the restructuring of the primary school and the employment of education supervisors to oversee pupils’ need for special care in school yards and restaurants, compared to middle and secondary school students.

The union also adhered to the rank of “deputy principal”, provided that the name was changed to “elementary principal”, to unify the perception between the three educational phases, by linking the educational system reform project with the requirements of the Basic Law for Education Users, which is under amendment and review.

The Secretary-General of the Syndicate expounded several proposals to the Minister of Education, most notably the use of psychologists in primary schools, to accompany and follow up the pupils psychologically so as to address any problem in its beginnings, especially for learners who have difficulty speaking or from psychological complexes such as shyness or involuntary urination.

Our interlocutor also suggested raising the school age to seven years instead of the current six years, to enable children to enjoy playing, which, according to psychology experts, will contribute to raising the level of their educational attainment, with a return to the adoption of the old school system of six years in primary education.

And this by dropping some of the current materials and limiting the learning to only three skills, namely reading, arithmetic and writing, with the inclusion of history, geography or physical education lessons in the “reading” lessons.

With regard to the basic law for sector employees, the latter suggested to the minister to review it completely because it depends on what is known as “classification”, by reforming the training system, which is considered weak, and the employment system, by announcing the opening of national external competitions for the employment of professors, holders of a bachelor’s degree, while subjecting the successful for residential training, given that reports show that the rate of vacancy coverage for teachers does not exceed 5% nationally, and the rest are university graduates.