Scholar lauds Tunisia's growth
Banquet speaker, professor notes reforms in education laws as critical to North African nation's success
By Kristina Michel
Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: News
Tunisia's education system has come a long way in just 50 years and can only go farther, said a University of Texas professor who spoke at the Tunisian Student Association in North America's second annual banquet Friday.
Mounira M. Charrad, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, celebrated Tunisian culture and the 50th anniversary of the Education Reform Act of 1958 that initiated Tunisia's mission to ensure a quality education for every child. Charrad said one of the most important outcomes of the initiative is that gender equality has become the norm in Tunisia.
"I think Tunisia's education system has gone through extraordinary development. It's not an accident," Charrad said. "Not only has the system expanded to make sure that every child is in school - that is very rare in developing countries - the curriculum has also changed. Men and women have been presented as equals."
The Education Reform Act of 1958 - passed two years after Tunisia won independence from France - started Tunisia on the road to quality education by setting up a system to expose students to world affairs, according to International Reports, a tracking organization run by the advertising department of The Washington Times. Tunisia has put more than 20 percent of its national budget toward education, and Tunisia reached a 99.1 percent enrollment rate for children starting school at age 6.
In 1989 the Tunisian government passed a law mandating gender equality and tolerance for everyone be taught in education, International Reports said, and the Tunisian government has a sustaining textbook industry. Updated textbooks are made available for everyone in school because of the change in laws. These textbooks are required to portray men and women as equals.
According to UNESCO, 97 percent of boys and 98 percent of girls in Tunisia are enrolled in primary school of elementary and middle levels, and Charrad said school is not the only place where women are taking charge as equals.
Mounira M. Charrad, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, celebrated Tunisian culture and the 50th anniversary of the Education Reform Act of 1958 that initiated Tunisia's mission to ensure a quality education for every child. Charrad said one of the most important outcomes of the initiative is that gender equality has become the norm in Tunisia.
"I think Tunisia's education system has gone through extraordinary development. It's not an accident," Charrad said. "Not only has the system expanded to make sure that every child is in school - that is very rare in developing countries - the curriculum has also changed. Men and women have been presented as equals."
The Education Reform Act of 1958 - passed two years after Tunisia won independence from France - started Tunisia on the road to quality education by setting up a system to expose students to world affairs, according to International Reports, a tracking organization run by the advertising department of The Washington Times. Tunisia has put more than 20 percent of its national budget toward education, and Tunisia reached a 99.1 percent enrollment rate for children starting school at age 6.
In 1989 the Tunisian government passed a law mandating gender equality and tolerance for everyone be taught in education, International Reports said, and the Tunisian government has a sustaining textbook industry. Updated textbooks are made available for everyone in school because of the change in laws. These textbooks are required to portray men and women as equals.
According to UNESCO, 97 percent of boys and 98 percent of girls in Tunisia are enrolled in primary school of elementary and middle levels, and Charrad said school is not the only place where women are taking charge as equals.
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Ahmed S
posted 4/08/08 @ 12:58 AM CST
"Not only has the system expanded to make sure that EVERY CHILD is in school....."
This is a complete and utter bold faced lie.
The Tunisian government under the 1985 decree (decree 108 passed by the Ministry of Education) has bared every Muslim girl who has worn or wears the traditional Islamic Head dress from a public education and a government job!
What is worse is not only are young Muslim women who wear the headscarf denied the basic human right of an education; but they are now being attacked and harassed on the street. (Continued…)
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