The Quality of Education in Morocco and Tunisia

Introduction

The importance of education is quite clear. Education is the knowledge of putting one's potentials to maximum use. One can safely say that a human being is not in the proper sense till he is educated. Many may say education is not important, but truly it is.

This importance of education is basically for two reasons. The first is that the training of a human mind is not complete without education. Education makes man a right thinker. It tells man how to think and how to make decision. The second reason for the importance of education is that only through the attainment of education, man is enabled to receive information from the external world; to acquaint himself with past history and receive all necessary information regarding the present (Hamdy pp.65-70). Without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards outside world.

Education in Tunisia

Since gaining independence from France in 1956, Tunisian education officials have been working to develop an education system that is responsive to the needs of a rapidly developing country, while also emphasizing the need to develop a distinct national and regional identity. Building on the French model left behind, the focus of education reformers has been to “Arabize” curriculum and faculty at the nation's schools and universities while producing a skilled Tunisian workforce that is able to build and manage a modern economy. The Education Reform Law of 1958, therefore, emphasized technical and vocational education, and the training of a corps of Tunisian educators qualified to teach a new uniform school curriculum emphasizing Arabic language and literature, Islamic thought, and the history and geography of the Tunisian and North African region.

In the university sector, the government established the University of Tunis (UT) in 1960 by incorporating several existing higher schools and institutes. The new university acted as a springboard for the development of tertiary studies in the country. A higher education law passed in 1969 placed all government-recognized institutions of higher learning and scientific research under the umbrella of the university. In 1986, the faculties, schools and institutes of UT were separated into three distinct universities, which have in turn been reorganized over time to form new universities. Today there are 43 public university-level institutions in Tunisia (13 universities, 24 higher institutes of technological studies and six higher institutes of teacher training) (United Nations pp.50-65).

Enrollments within the tertiary sector have been growing exponentially since the passing of the higher education law of 1969, and they are expected to continue to grow at a sustained rate over the next ten years (see University Section for enrollment figures).

In academic year 1990-91, the New Education Act introduced a reformed educational structure which increased the length of instruction at the primary and secondary levels from 12 years to a total of 13, and mandated that the first nine years of education be compulsory. Reform and restructuring plans within the higher ...