Nationwide Efforts Support 12 Million Students’ Return to School
Nearly 12 million students are scheduled to return to primary, middle, and secondary schools on Monday for the 2026-2027 academic year. This extensive re-entry aligns with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's directives from the latest Council of Ministers meeting, emphasizing the optimal utilization of recent gains in the education sector to ensure a successful and distinguished school year. The President specifically instructed Minister of National Education Mohamed Saghir Saadaoui to leverage these achievements through systematic and well-considered management, aiming for quality and performance, while also stressing the importance of investing in the sector's significant human resources. In preparation, the Ministry of Housing, Urban Planning and the City delivered 289 educational facilities, including 151 primary schools, 90 middle schools, and 48 secondary schools.
The Ministry of National Education has affirmed its commitment to thorough preparations for the new academic year, particularly ensuring that educational institutions damaged by recent fires in eastern and central wilayas are ready to welcome students. Additionally, measures have been implemented to guarantee the availability of over 80 million textbooks nationwide across educational institutions and sales points. Pedagogical innovations for this school year include special arrangements developed in coordination with the Ministry of National Solidarity to support students with autism spectrum disorder, aiming for their effective integration and sound educational achievement. The human resource framework has also been strengthened with the integration of teachers who successfully passed the recent recruitment competition.
Marking the commencement of the academic year, the education sector, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, is organizing the second edition of the National School Health Week, operating under the theme "School Health… for a safe healthy future." This initiative will feature opening lessons across all educational levels focusing on the interconnectedness of environment and health. Primary students will learn about the "Relationship of the tree to human health," middle schoolers will explore the "Impact of forest damage on public health," and secondary students will delve into "Protection of the forest environment as a health necessity." Concurrently, field monitoring operations are underway across various wilayas by the Ministry of Interior, Local Communities and Transport to assess school readiness, while the Algiers Traffic and Urban Transport Management Corporation has undertaken interventions such as installing protection barriers, renewing signage, and painting pedestrian crossings around educational institutions to ensure traffic safety and a clean, organized, and secure environment for students.
