Algeria

Government Educational Agencies: Algerian education remains highly centralized even though there is a stated aim of gradual decentralization. The Ministry of National Education is the controlling body. The ministry is charged with all activities relative to the education of children of school age (foundation, general secondary, technical secondary, and tertiary) including the programs, evaluation, orientation, communication, finances, planning, cultural, sports and social activities, legal studies, and personnel.

The central administration of the Ministry of Education is comprised of the Secretary General, the Cabinet, and the Inspector General, plus various directors. Four regional offices (north, south, east, and west) are concerned with pedagogy, financial, administrative, and cultural affairs, and, at the local level, each of the wilayas has a Director of Education (D.E.) to implement programs and operations.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Research administers the universities and engineering schools (grandes écoles). It also is responsible for teacher's colleges (écoles normales superiéure and école normale superiéure d'enseignement technique) and national institutes for higher education (instituts nationaux d'enseignement superiéure) that train teachers for secondary schools.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education administers preuniversity institutions (foundation and secondary schools). A number of other ministries also contain (specialized) institutes. L'Inspector Générale, created in 1995, is directly under the Minister of Education and is charged with inspecting, controlling, and evaluating local educational institutions. This office coordinates approximately 500 inspectors. There are inspectors concerned with the formation of academic disciplines, lycées and colleges, finances, and scholarly and professional orientation.

A national center (L'office national des examens et concours) prepares the annual exams; another (Le center national de documentation pédagogique) purchases all books and educational documents. CNDP (L'Institut national de recherch, pédagogique) is concerned with pedagogical research and the evaluation of the educational system. The institute is comprised of university professors who serve three-year terms on a scientific council. CNF (Le centre national d'enseignement generalizé) is charged with distance education and audiovisual methods of instruction for people who cannot go to school.

Educational Budgets: The government alone funds education. In 1994, expenditures on education totaled 79,889,000,000 dinars (5.6 percent of the gross national product and 17.6 percent of total government expenditures.) Capital expenditures totaled 10,200,000,000 dinars. In the 1997 budget, 12.5 percent of the administrative budget was allocated to education and training. Priorities were teacher training, the development of technical and scientific teaching programs, and adult literacy and training initiatives.

Algeria received substantial assistance from the World Bank. Between 1973 and 1980, Algeria contracted five education loan agreements for sums totaling US$276 million. The World Bank has continued to provide funds and technical assistance in connection with fundamental reform in education, the latest phase of which occurred in 1992.

Since the 1980s, funds for the purchase of books and the renewal and maintenance of library collections, journal subscriptions, and laboratory equipment have been reduced dramatically. The reductions coincided with swelling enrollments from the post independence baby boom.

Universities were hurt by the country's economic crisis in the 1990s. In particular, the restrictive measures imposed on the operating and equipment budgets of the Algerian state by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank heavily impacted higher education and scientific research.

Educational Research: Research, an essential ingredient of academic excellence, has returned to the Education Ministry again after a decade of reforms that splintered the national research center, split responsibility for research and higher education, and left academic researchers swamped with teaching assignments. The INRE (Le center national de formation des cadres de l'éducation) is expected to participate in educational research and experimentation.

The University of Algers houses the National Documentation and Research Center for Education (Centre National de Documentation et de Recherche en Pedagogie), or CNDRP. In addition, the Center for the Coordination of Studies and Research on the Infrastructure and Facilities of the Ministry of Education and on Scientific Research (Centre de Coordination des Études et des Recherches sur les Infrastructure, les Equipements du Ministére de l'Enseignement et de la Recherche Scientifique) is located in Algiers. The University d'Algers also hosts the Institut de Psychologie et Sciences de l'Education.

Generally in Algeria, an educational institution is evaluated in terms of quantitative internal criteria such as rates of success, failure, retention and attrition. Rarely are external criteria used such as performance tests, interviews with graduates, employers, and the like.