Algeria

Partners situated in Algeria

None.

Algeria in a nutshell

Algeria (Formal Arabic: الجزائر, al-Jazā’ir; Berber: Dzayer), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.

It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, a few kilometers of the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara in the southwest, Morocco in the west and northwest, and the Mediterranean Sea in the north. I

Its size is almost 2,400,000 km2 with an estimated population near to 35,000,000.

The capital of Algeria is Algiers.

About a quarter of the population of the country lives off less than US$ 2 a day.

Algeria is a member of the United Nations, African Union, OPEC and the Arab League. It also contributed towards the creation of the Maghreb Union.

Algeria is considered by Berbers to be a part of the Berber World.

The population of Algeria is 34,895,000 (January 2010 est.), with 99% classified ethnically as Arab or Berber. At the outset of the 20th century, Algeria's population was approximately 4 million. About 90% of Algerians live in the northern, coastal area; the minority who inhabit the Sahara are mainly concentrated in oases, although some 1.5 million remain nomadic or partly nomadic. Almost 30% of Algerians are under the age of 15. Most Algerians have ancestry coming from Arabs, Berbers, and to a lesser extend Southern Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans. Furthermore, the country has a diverse population ranging from light skinned, blue eyed Kabyles in the atlas mountains to dark skinned Black African looking populations in the Sahara (e.g. the Tuaregs and Gnawa). Descendants of Andalusian refugees are also present in the population of Algiers and other cities. Linguistically, ~83% of Algerians speak Algerian Arabic, while ~15% speak Berber dialects who are to be found in the Kabyle and Chaoui regions mainly. French is widely understood, and Standard Arabic (FosHaa) is taught to and understood by most Algerian Arabic-speaking youth.

Europeans account for less than 1% of the population, inhabiting almost exclusively the largest metropolitan areas. However, during the colonial period there was a large (15.2% in 1962) European population, consisting primarily of French people, in addition to Spaniards in the west of the country, Italians and Maltese in the east, and other Europeans such as Greeks in smaller numbers. Known as pieds-noirs, European colonists were concentrated on the coast and formed a majority of the population of Oran (60%) and important proportions in other large cities like Algiers and Annaba. Almost all of this population left during or immediately after the country's independence from France. Shortages of housing and medicine continue to be pressing problems in Algeria. Failing infrastructure and the continued influx of people from rural to urban areas has overtaxed both systems. According to the UNDP, Algeria has one of the world's highest per housing unit occupancy rates for housing, and government officials have publicly stated that the country has an immediate shortfall of 1.5 million housing units.

Women make up 70 percent of Algeria's lawyers and 60 percent of its judges, and also dominate the field of medicine. Increasingly, women are contributing more to household income than men. Sixty percent of university students are women, according to university researchers. It is estimated that 95,700 refugees and asylum-seekers have sought refuge in Algeria. This includes roughly 90,000 from Morocco and 4,100 from Palestine. An estimated 46,000 Sahrawis from Western Sahara live in refugee camps in the Algerian part of the Sahara Desert. As of 2009 35,000 Chinese migrant workers lived in Algeria.

Algeria education policy

At independence in 1962 the Algerian education system was highly exclusive and geared toward the training of a French colonial elite. With the creation of the Ministry of Education in 1963, the process of building an inclusive and open national education system was set in motion. Officials charged with developing the education system placed their focus on a number of goals, primary among which were the “Arabization” of curriculum and faculty, the upgrading of teaching skills at all levels, and the promotion of a skilled class of workers and technicians through the emphasis of technical and vocational education.

In the early 1960s, French was replaced by Arabic as the language of instruction at the primary level, and later in the 1960s Arabic was standardized as the language of instruction at the secondary level. French continues to be used in technical fields at many post-secondary institutions, despite a 1991 law mandating the use of Arabic in all sectors and at all levels. Arabic is, however, used as the language of instruction at the post-secondary level in most non-technical faculties.

An education reform passed in 1971 introduced the nine-year basic education program. Further reforms in 1976 extended the period of compulsory education from six years to 10 years while also guaranteeing that education at every level be provided free to all. In addition to guaranteeing tuition-free instruction, the reforms of 1976 mandated that education be the exclusive domain of the state. As a result, the private sector has had little impact on education and training in Algeria; however, private instruction has been offered on a limited basis since the early 1990s and may soon play a bigger role. Reacting to a need to reduce the burden on the state, the government passed an executive decree in 2004 that amended the 1976 reforms and explicitly allowed for the establishment of private institutions of education under well-defined regulations. Private education in Algeria still remains, however, very much a nascent industry.

Algeria education system

Education in Algeria is free and officially compulsory for Algerians up to age 17, but actual enrollment falls far short of 100 percent. Enrollment drops off sharply from primary to secondary school. In fact, only about half the eligible population is enrolled in secondary school, which consists of two three-year cycles beginning at age 12. In addition, Algeria has: 34 Universities 13 University Centers 21 National Superior Institute 8 Preparatory Institutes. The primary language of school instruction is Arabic, but Berber-language instruction has been permitted since 1999, in part to ease reliance on foreign teachers but also in response to complaints about Arabization.

As of 2008, Algeria's literacy rate is 69–70 percent, higher than those of Morocco and Egypt but subpar by international standards. The breakdown by gender is 79 percent for males and 61 percent for females, A lag persists for women despite progress since independence in 1962. Education consumes one-quarter of the national budget. Algeria faces a shortage of teachers as a result of the doubling in the number of eligible children and young adults in the last 12 years.

The structure of the school system is based on 6+3+3 model: six years of primary school, three years of lower secondary school and another three years of upper secondary school. Together, the nine years of primary and lower secondary education constitute the compulsory basic education phase. The number of children completing a primary education has been rising steadily through the 1990s, especially among female students. In 1990, 80 percent of students beginning primary education graduated (74 percent female, 87 percent male), while in 2003 93 percent of students finished primary school (both male and female). Net primary enrollment rates (as a percentage of school-age children) stood at 95 percent in 2003. Although enrollment rates are relatively high at the primary level, only 59 percent of the relevant age cohort enrolled in secondary studies in 1999. In the tertiary sector, total student enrollments have grown exponentially since independence: 2,809 (1962), 19,213 (1970), 79,351 (1980), 258,995 (1989), and 423,000 in 1999.

The Ministry of Higher Education lists a total of 57 public institutions of higher education: 27 universities, 13 university centers, 6 national schools (écoles nationales), 6 national institutes (instituts nationaux), and 4 teacher-training institutes (écoles normales supérieures). The structure of university studies is currently being reformed from a 3-4-5-7 system to a 3-5-8 system based on a three-year licence, two-year master and a three-year doctorat.

Higher education

Universities in Algeria

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Algeria)

Algeria has a developed educational system based on European methodologies with strong efficient research in mathematics and technology. The estimated number universities and colleges for 2005 was 130. The following are among the main universities:

1. Annaba University
2. Abou Bakr Belkaïd University
3. University of Algiers - founded 1909 - see http://www.univ-alger.dz/univ_ang/ (English site)
4. Badji Mokhtar University
5. University of Batna
6. Ecole Nationale d'Administration à Alger
7. Ecole Nationale Polytechnique - see http://www.enp.edu.dz/
8. University of Blida
9. Djillali Liabes University
10. Université de Bejaia
11. University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediène
12. University of Mostaganem
13. University of Oran
14. Es-senia University
15. Mentouri University

Higher education reform

The Bologna Process

There are developments fostered by France in Algeria and the other Francophone countries of North Africa.

Algeria's HEIs in the information society

Information society strategy

Algeria is encouriging the use of ICT in education by preparing an ICT policy framework along with an implementation steratgey. The government has set up a special Committee to synergise different sectors in the area of ICT (infrastructure -research - software ..)

Virtual Campuses in HE

Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives

None known.

Interesting Programmes

None known.

Re.ViCa Case-study

None.

Lessons learnt

None.

References

Wikipedia entries

• Algeria
• List of universities in Algeria
• Education in Algeria (rather brief)

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