Over 20,000 Algerian pupils pay hefty sums to attend private school

After being put in the dock and rebuked a few years ago by the National Education Minister for allegedly breaching the laws, private schools in Algeria are now reasserting themselves on the National Educational scene owing to the meritorious results achieved by their pupils, all grades taken together, in end -of -cycle exams including the B.E.M and Baccalaureate.

• Given these telling breakthroughs, the National Education Minister Aboubakr Benbouzid chaired late last week a broad – based a meeting in Algiers with private school headmasters to whom he vividly expressed his Ministerial department’s readiness to help them with school books and other props, free of charge, for the benefit of their pupils provided they strictly abide by the laws in the fulfilment of their  pedagogical mission.
• Apart from their lofty pedagogical objective, the private schools, numbering 117 nationwide, are to all intents and purposes, spawning annual financial returns estimated at 160 million dinars (160,000 Euros) with more than 20 thousand pupils registered on the rolls.
• Numerous parents, whose children dropped out of public school after failing in end of cycle exams like the B.E.M or the Baccalaureate, have instead registered their offsprings in these private schools to allow them to forge ahead and succeed.
• But the financial burden is heavy.
• These parents, who do not want to see their lagging children loiter in the streets, accept to pay between 8,500 dinars to 14,000 dinars (140 Euros) per month for the fees requested by these private schools.
• These schools are often located in private villas rented by headmasters at a high cost averaging 300,000 dinars monthly (3,000 Euros).
• Many teachers, dismayed by their paltry salary in public schools, have shifted gear by joining these thriving public schools where they are paid up to 1,000 dinars (10 Euros) per teaching hour.
• The growing attraction and appeal represented nowadays by these buoyant private schools in Algeria is the commendable success-rate recorded by the pupils in the various exams notably the crucial Baccalaureate, which gives the laureates access to University studies.
• In 2008, 38.04 % of private school candidates succeeded in obtaining their Baccalaureate diploma with flying colours while the success- rate for the intermediate school certificate exam B.E.M reached over 32 percent.