National education: English and Damascene teaching “generalized” next year

The Minister of National Education announced yesterday that the teaching of English and Damascene will be further generalized in the next academic year. The announcement was made among other announcements and commitments made by Abdelhakim Belabed during a ceremony organized yesterday during the celebration of the Day of Knowledge, Yum El Ilm.

The second foreign language taught in the country, English is taught to students from the third year of primary school from the beginning of the current school year. Next year, courses will be found, logically, in fourth place. Two “classes” of students who receive language instruction in elementary school will be at the school next year, which must be mobilized based on academic and personal arrangements.

As a reminder, the teaching of English from the first year of schooling, a position hitherto reserved for French, was decided by the country’s top authorities last year. The Ministry of National Education had to launch a massive recruitment campaign which saw the commitment of around 5,000 contract teachers to ensure a teaching load program in more than 20,000 institutions across the country.

Accelerated training programs are also conducted for successful candidates. Unions say teachers have been given the job of teaching in more than one school to ease staff shortages. But education officials say the race is on. The arrival of the second wave of students receiving education presents a new challenge to the sector as the school population concerned will at least double.

It is currently unknown whether another recruitment program will be launched to strengthen the affected staff, but the “generalization” announced by the education minister cannot logically be done without.

Abdelhakim Belabed also announced a generalization of Damascite’s teaching. Again, the minister did not provide details on the matter. If the teaching of the country’s second national and official language is stalled on the ground, the High Commission for Amazighity (HCA) considers it because the teaching of Tamazight is still optional in school. .

He therefore pleads that “Thomeside should become a school subject like no other” or benefit from a compulsory nature. “The time has come to draw up a clear national plan to generalize Tamasite teaching gradually and without haste. It is also a question of strengthening the allocation of teachers at the three levels of school education, primary, middle and secondary”, proposed the institute led by Hashemi Assad in a meeting on the matter with the ministry, among other things. Department of Education last January.

Abdelhakim Belabet’s words suggest that things have evolved in the right direction as the course of “generalization” is maintained.