Scientific event

The national seminar "Schooling in Algeria: The Challenges of Textbooks, Private Schools, and Supplementary Tutoring" is based on field studies and debates conducted within the framework of projects by the Research Division on the Anthropology of Education and Training Systems.
The first axis of this event deals with the content of textbooks in social and human sciences disciplines, the evolution of their themes, and the tensions they have raised among various actors, both inside and outside the educational system.
The second axis addresses private schools under the purview of national education (actors, publics, social demand, public/private relationship, etc.), as well as the modalities of their creation and development at the local level.
As for the third axis, it focuses on the phenomenon of "parallel supplementary tutoring" or private tutoring, its forms, its causes, as well as official and societal positions regarding it.
First Axis: Textbooks in Social and Human Sciences Disciplines: Content and Challenges
Examining the main themes that have structured the content of language, social sciences, and human sciences textbooks across different school cycles reveals that they revolve around several dimensions: national identity, language, local culture and heritage, historical narrative (memorial discourse), colonialism and the national liberation war, state-building and strengthening the sense of belonging, modernization and development issues, global stakes and regional relations, not to mention issues related to citizenship, human rights, cultural diversity, environmental protection, democracy, tolerance, equality, and critical thinking.
Depending on the period, a more or less significant diversification of the themes addressed can be observed, marked by progress in certain areas and setbacks in others. Numerous debates, and even tensions, also arise around issues such as the hierarchy of national and foreign languages, the national narrative and local memories, religious values, global culture and technological modernity, gender issues and discourses on equality, as well as the content of literary, philosophical, and religious texts. Added to this are divergences regarding the limits of stimulating critical thinking and the preference given to comprehension skills rather than memorization in pedagogical practices implemented through textbook content.
Based on these observations, it seems relevant to revisit the evolution of the themes addressed in these textbooks, as well as the stakes and debates—both epistemological and socio-political—raised by the choice of certain contents. This reflection also opens up a comparative perspective, making it possible to question the major turning points that school curricula have experienced in Maghreb, African, and Mediterranean spaces through this type of educational medium.

In this perspective, this axis proposes to address the following questions:

How have the themes of social sciences, human sciences, and languages evolved at school through textbook content?

What are the characteristics of pedagogical discourse in these disciplines?

What relationship does it maintain with local transformations and the repercussions of global changes?

What epistemological, pedagogical, and socio-cultural stakes have marked the content of these textbooks?

What are the modalities for adopting these books and the criteria for their evaluation?

What are the main debates and reservations raised by their content that have sparked controversies among different actors and elites?

Finally, what are the new challenges facing the textbook industry today in the context of digital transformations and new forms of interactive learning?

Second Axis: Private Schools in Algeria: Actors, Founding Challenges, and Governance Models

This axis focuses on private schools, which constitute a new form of educational establishment and are drawing growing interest from families who have opted out of the free education offered by public schools. Statistics indeed show a continuous increase in their number. While they were few in number following the decrees and decisions regulating their creation in 2004–2005, and concentrated in a few large wilayas, they have progressively expanded to reach approximately 680 establishments over the last two years.
The Centre for Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology (CRASC) has already supervised several studies dedicated to this type of establishment, notably the National Research Project (PNR) entitled "Private Education in Algeria: Realities and Perspectives" (2012–2013), as well as the institutional research project "Private Schools of National Education: Selectivity and Quality of Training" (2020–2024). The preliminary results of this research have revealed forms of selectivity and heterogeneity within these establishments. This heterogeneity appears both in the backgrounds and profiles of the actors—founders, managers, and teachers—and among the students and their families. We hypothesize that this selectivity is mainly determined by social and cultural origins, as well as by the intellectual and ideological orientations of the various actors involved.
We approach this issue from the observation that studies conducted at the national level on the rise of private schools remain limited due to the relatively recent nature of this development. Existing research has mainly focused on the regulatory and legal framework of these establishments, the rules governing them, the degree of satisfaction of parents, and their relationship with social and cultural transformations.
Within this framework, this section proposes to examine the different forms that private schools take in Algeria today in order to highlight the dynamics underlying their emergence and geographical expansion, the success or failure factors of certain experiences, the challenges related to their governance, and the pedagogical models that guide the choice of these establishments.
Third Axis: Supplementary Tutoring and Private Lessons: The Other Face of Education and Schooling in Question
The third axis focuses on the issue of supplementary tutoring and private lessons in Algeria. It examines the processes leading to their "structural character," which has today become a prominent feature across all cycles of education and schooling in the country, albeit with varying intensities and sociological configurations. Field observations reveal a plurality of forms of this phenomenon, distinguished both by individual initiatives and by the institutional modalities that frame them, as well as by the nature of their delivery, whether in-person or remote.
We consider that the phenomenon of private tutoring highlights some of the profound transformations that the Algerian educational system is experiencing today and which the public school is facing. Notably, it questions central concepts such as educational equity, free education, and the conception of education as a public service or a social mission. This issue appears with particular acuity when associated with academic success and its quality, when viewed as a space for pedagogical remediation, or when it transforms into an educational and social mechanism deemed "indispensable" in contemporary logics of academic competition. Academic results, which heavily condition training pathways and career opportunities—particularly in the case of baccalaureate holders—constitute a significant indicator of this. Beyond these dimensions, the structural nature of the phenomenon also offers a relevant framework for questioning the relationships between society, education, and the school institution in a context marked by both generational transformations and the rise of digital technology.

This structural character, which is currently the subject of numerous scientific debates based on empirical surveys, raises several major questions:

How can we explain and understand the structuring of this phenomenon?

What indicators allow us to identify the social demand emanating from the different actors involved?

How can we understand its effects on the analysis of operational concepts that fuel contemporary debates around the quality of teaching in public schools, educational equity, the pedagogical needs of students, the parallel market of private lessons, educational inequalities between social groups, or the professional skills of educational actors?

The phenomenon also constitutes a key entry point for examining the nature, evolution, and reconfiguration of the "social contract" that historically enabled social mobility through free public schooling and offered its beneficiaries prospects for professional advancement. While some research (Darras, 2014) emphasizes that certain forms of social success are no longer necessarily correlated with academic success—as evidenced in particular by the employment crisis among qualified young university graduates—how then can we explain the continuous increase in the demand for private lessons? How can we understand the expansion of this parallel education market?

It should be recalled that this phenomenon, among others, has already been the subject of official reports and ministerial proposals aimed at providing both regulatory and pedagogical responses to address certain difficulties in the educational system, notably the progressive drop in attendance at public schools and the phenomenon of absenteeism in exam-year classes.
Designed as a reflection and discussion workshop, the third axis aims to continue the scientific debate around this issue and to engage its various actors to better understand the long-term transformations affecting relations between the school, the family, and society in Algeria. We believe that scientific exchanges based on a diversity of theoretical and conceptual approaches, as well as international comparisons, constitute a major opportunity to develop new research perspectives. This includes designing field survey projects capable of producing updated, rigorous, and professional data on this phenomenon, allowing for an analysis and interpretation that goes beyond common-sense discourses, which often produce approximations rather than scientific knowledge.

Coordination: Fouad NOUAR – Djilali ELMESTARI – Abdelwahab BELGHERRAS – Mustapha MEDJAHDI – Hind BOUAGADA