This Month’s Topic: – In this month’s newsletter the EdInvest Country Snapshot focuses on Tunisia.
Background
When Tunisia gained independence in 1956 less than five percent of children attended school. In 1958 a major reform was designed to ensure universal primary education, which has now been achieved. Declining birth rates have resulted in a reduction in the primary school student population, while student numbers in upper basic education and secondary education continue to grow as a result of increasing primary completion rates. The challenges for Government are therefore to target the most vulnerable children in order to achieve full primary school completion by 2015 and to take advantage of the decrease in the number of primary education students to use resources to improve quality (World Bank, 2002). In addition, persistent unemployment among secondary education graduates indicates a mismatch between the skills acquired at school and those sought by employers. This calls for curriculum adaptation at the secondary level as well as an increase in vocation training. This is of particular importance as Tunisian industry will no longer be protected by Government as of 2009 and will face international competition.
Access
Education in Tunisia is free and compulsory between the ages of six and 16. The 1989-91 reforms focused on achieving universal primary participation, a goal that was achieved in 1997-98, when 99.1 percent of six-year-olds were enrolled in school. All students will be completing a full course of primary schooling by 2015 if grade promotion rate continues advancing at or near the rate observed over the last ten years. Ninety-seven percent of children complete the first phase of primary school for 6-to-11-year-olds, 90.5 percent continue to age 16 and 75.4 percent to 18 years (International Herald Tribune, 2004).
The ratio of female students has reached 47.4 percent in primary schools and 50.6 percent in secondary schools. Women's share of enrollment at the university level rose from 21.1% in 1987-88 to 50.4 percent in 1999-2000, the first academic year in which more women than men were enrolled at the university level. Among 20-24 year old women, enrollment rose from 5.5 percent in 1987-99 to 12.3 percent in 1995 and almost 19.0 percent in 1999-2000. However, women have not yet been able to benefit fully from their improved educational status: in 2001 the labor force participation rate for women was just twenty-six percent.
The Tunisian government has invested heavily in computer training, technology, and online services, making Tunisia one of the most wired countries in North Africa. It also has one of the highest per-capita internet-access rates in the Arab world, with approximately 400,000 users. This should help ensure the success of The Virtual University of Tunisia which offers courses on the internet. Newly opened in 2003, the university will provide supplemental distance-learning courses to complement traditional university curriculums, a full distance-learning curriculum to give wider access to university education and flexibility in the higher-education system to tailor its needs for vocational and professional training demands. The university operates as an independent degree-granting institution that is free to collaborate with Tunisia's seven existing universities, foreign, public and private universities (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2001). Its first program is an undergraduate program in management, offered in cooperation with the Université Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg. Projections call for the virtual university to account for 20 percent of the total university enrollment by 2006.
In recent years Tunisia has also expanded its vocational training sector and in 2000 had a capacity for 60,000 trainees compared with only 6,500 in 1987. There are eighty fully equipped training centers around the country (The Middle East, 2000).
Quality
Since 1992 Tunisia has been conducting both internal and external evaluations of its basic and secondary education system. Findings include an emphasis on theoretical learning and quantitative learning in the curricula. This has resulted in an inability of students to search for information, analyze and synthesize. In addition, students perform poorly in speaking and writing and there is an absence of vocational skills in basic teacher training.
Tunisia began participating in international comparative evaluations in 1998, both in the TIMSS –R evaluation (Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study) for students aged 14 from thirty-eight countries and in the M.L.A. (Monitoring Learning Assessment) evaluation of learning in mathematics, Arabic and a everyday life competences for 10-year-olds in the basic education cycle. Twelve African countries participated in this evaluation. The TIMSS results ranked Tunisia twenty-ninth out of thirty-eight countries in mathematics and thirty-four out of thirty-eight in science. This poor performance is attributed to an overall lack of mathematical concepts in the curricula and limited opportunities for apprenticeship allowing students to apply mathematical skills and knowledge. Science is taught for only five percent of total teaching hours in the second cycle of basic education compared to twelve percent in many other countries. There is no teaching of physics in the second cycle of basic education whatsoever. In the M.L.A. evaluation, Tunisia ranked first in mathematics and Arabic and second in everyday life competences. This strong performance was achieved when all participants were African countries whose educational results are modest. In addition, the limited number of participants does not constitute a sufficient sample for a meaningful comparison (Ministry of Education, 2002).
Tunisia does have a strong language program, allocating more time (twenty-nine percent of total instruction time) to foreign language instruction than most European countries (ten percent of total instruction time). French is introduced at age eight, English at age 10 and a third language in secondary school. Tunisia has also succeeded in providing all secondary schools and tertiary institutions with computers, IT laboratories and internet connections. It is now working on a program that will bring all primary schools technologically up to speed by 2006. In addition, the Education Ministry has established a Virtual School to support children needing extra attention.
At the tertiary level, university faculty numbers increased from 2,300 in 1980 to 10,293 in 2000. However, this growth has not kept pace with the rate of enrollment growth. The result is an increase in the average student-to-faculty ratio from 15:1 to 20:1 during the 1990s. There are striking differences in student/teacher ratios depending on the faculty. For example, the faculty of medicine has a student/teacher ratio of around 10:1, while faculties of law and economics post a ratio of 48:1.
Legal Framework
Until July 2000, no legal recognition was given to the private higher education sector. However, the government adopted legislation allowing for state regulation and recognition of private institutions of higher education to ease the strain on state schools which were suffering from to serious overcrowding and underfunding. Since then, the Ministry of Higher Education has accredited seventeen private institutions.
Private higher education institutions can be run as companies and fall under the authorization of the Ministry of Higher Education and other ministries if necessary. They cannot be of a religious, ethnic or political nature and must comply with government standards regarding health, security and infrastructure. The director of a private higher education institution must be a Tunisian national and must be at the professional level of assistant professor. Partnerships between Tunisian and foreign institutions are permitted with Ministry approval. The duration of specific disciplines in also determined by the Ministry. Private institutions are also regulated in terms of student/teacher ratios as well as the percentage of full time faculty. Full time faculty must have at least MA degrees and at least 50 percent must have the PhD. Graduates of private higher institutions must submit their academic files to the Ministry with full dossiers and a special commission will determine whether to award the diploma (PROPHE translation).
A minimum of $500,000USD capital required to open a private higher education institution and fifty-one percent of initial capital must be Tunisian. While gifts and endowments from abroad are forbidden, they may be accepted from Tunisian nationals with the Ministry’s authorization.
Finance
Tunisia's allocation of 20 percent of the GDP to education is one of the highest in the world. In 2002, this amounted to 13 percent of total public expenditure (5.1 percent of GDP) and 23 percent of total public recurrent expenditure. (EB)
The country's annual budget generally allocates more than 20 percent of the Government operating budget for primary and secondary education, a figure that is among the highest in the world. The main source of higher education funding is the national budget. Over the last 10 years, the state has allocated between 1.2% and 5.0% of its budget to higher education. This share increased during the 1990s after a decline during the 1980s. Salaries account for a little over two-thirds of the operating budget (with teaching salaries taking over 40%) at the higher education level.
Private Sector
At the primary level, private enrollment account for only 5.4 percent of total enrollment. At the secondary level, private enrolment is 13.5 percent.
In 2002, there were 270,000 students enrolled in the Tunisian higher education system; in 2003 there were more than 300,000. That figure is projected to near 500,000 by 2010. Government officials hope the private sector will be able to help fill the gap and that in three years 30,000 students will be enrolled in private schools. In 2000, private universities enroll about 3,500 students, and charge fees from $2,000-$5,500. To ensure the quality of credentials and learning outcomes, and in line with a July 2001 education law, successful completion of the baccalaureate is a prerequisite for entry to newly accredited private schools of higher education.
Articles of Interest
Mexico’s powerful National Education Workers Union, the largest trade union in Latin America, has created a system of perks and patronage, including a practice that allows teaching positions to be inherited and sold for cash, a veto over curriculum change and a high rate of teacher absenteeism. See the entire story in the July 14th edition of the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48017-2004Jul13_2.html
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state's school voucher program is unconstitutional because it strips local school boards of control over education.
The high court said the program requires school districts to turn over a portion of locally raised funds to private schools, over which local school boards have no control. Voucher supporters are likely to introduce a new version in the 2005 Legislature to conform to the ruling. See the entire story by Jon Sarche of the Associated Press at:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/9037420.htm?1c
Teacher absenteeism is a serious concern for parents in India, reports the Washington Post. On any given day, 24.5 percent of the teachers at government primary schools fail to turn up for their jobs, according to a study sponsored by the British government. In the eastern state of Jharkhand, one of India's poorest regions, the absentee rate was recorded at 42 percent, the highest in the country. While the government has been generous with institutions of higher learning, public grade schools are often poorly equipped, understaffed and badly run; parents who can scrape together the fees typically send their children to India's burgeoning network of private schools, which educate an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the country's schoolchildren. See the entire story by John Lancaster online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58397-2004Jul17_2.html
Richard Garner of The Independent reports on a trend in Britain of state-financed schools being handed over to private sponsors to run. Goldman Sachs plans to plough £2m into running a sixth-form college in east London. Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair promised there would be no return to selection and no subsidising of private schools - as under the Conversatives. The Conservatives, are now proposing that parents should be offered vouchers of £5,500 to take to the school of their choice provided that schools do not charge more than that. The Liberal Democrats would raise taxes in an attempt to ensure that every parent had a good school in their community. See the July 8th article online: http://education.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=539143&host=16&dir=365
A report by Higher Edge profiles differences in the higher education market between China and India. For example, while both countries face similar challenges in their higher education sector with intense competition for admission to the best institutions and universities, China is far ahead on the supply side with nearly 100 high quality institutions and is investing heavily in creating many more, leaving India far behind. As a result China is turning out many more top quality students than India. See the entire article at: http://prayatna.typepad.com/education/higher_education/
Publications
The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education has updated its global education index reports. The April 2004 issue contains the Global Education Index 2004, part 1 which offers a unique perspective on commercial interests in postsecondary education internationally. In line with broader economic trends, 2003 saw widespread improvements in revenue and profits, reflected in upward share price movement. For this report as well as past issues see their website: http://www.obhe.ac.uk/products/briefings.html
A recent article by Carlo Salerno, Senior Research Associate at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies University of Twente, examines the following issues: What is known about higher education efficiency and reflecting on the state of the art? What common threads exist to tie the different studies together? What can be learned by examining how one studies on efficiency in one system that have yet to be applied in another? How do the efficiency findings from one country's higher education system compare to another? Is it even possible to draw such comparisons? The paper reviews efficiency studies of the Canadian, American, UK, Australian and Dutch education systems. Download the paper at http://www.minocw.nl/bhw/99/index.html
A publication by the Swedish aid agency SIDA entitled Making Markets Work for the Poor outlines the role of the private sector in increasing human capital in developing countries. See the publication online at: http://www.sida.se/content/1/c6/02/24/25/SIDA3049enWEB.pdf
Events
The Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER) will have its 17th annual conference from September 17 – 19th in Enschede, the Netherlands. The central theme for the conference is “Public-Private Dynamics in Higher Education”. The provisional program includes sessions on “The publicness of private higher education” and “Private-public dynamics in Higher Education: Between rhetoric and mirror games”. See their website for further information: http://www.utwente.nl/cheps/what's_new/higher_education_events/cherconference/
The Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) will be holding its national conference on “Hardtalking Private Education and Training - Choice, quality and profitability” in Melbourne on August 26028, 200. The conference will look at the state of the private post compulsory education and training sector in Australia today - the challenges, the barriers, the aspirations and the rewards. For further detail see the website: http://www.pco.com.au/acpet2004/main_page.htm
Suzanne Roddis (send comments to edinvest@ifc.org )
