Tunisia's Education Policy Regains Strategic Focus with New Council

Tunisia's educational policy is regaining its strategic compass with the establishment of the Superior Council of Education. This new body unites six ministries, a move hailed as a decisive step toward a long-term educational vision.

Slim Kacem, president of the Tunisian Association for the Quality of Education (ATUQUE), described the council's installation as a strategic turning point. He believes it will help the national education system recover its long-term thinking capacity, which has been overshadowed by administrative priorities for decades. The council includes the ministries of Education, Higher Education, Culture, Youth, Family, and Religious Affairs.

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The installation of the Superior Council of Education marks a strategic turning point for Tunisia.

This broad composition aims to unify public policies concerning youth. Kacem emphasized that the council should establish coherent national orientations grounded in evidence and scientific studies, rather than isolated decisions. He lamented the loss of the national center for pedagogical research, viewing the new council as filling that void by placing expertise and foresight at the core of public action.

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The new council precisely fills this void, by putting expertise and foresight back at the center of public action.

While the council has an advisory status, Kacem expects it to act as an essential regulator among education stakeholders, including media and the technological environment. He likened its role to a metronome, setting the pace for the entire system to prevent dissonance and ensure educational policy stability. This regulatory function also entails objective external evaluation of the Ministry of Education's performance, fostering constructive self-criticism.

Beyond coordination, the council is tasked with a long-term mission: defining the profile of the Tunisian citizen for the next thirty years, considering artificial intelligence, climate challenges, and geopolitical shifts. Kacem advocates for relying solely on national expertise to maintain a sovereign vision for the educational project, free from international organizations' agendas. The reform's success, he concluded, hinges on solid governance and clear role distribution among stakeholders.

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The council must set the tempo for the entire system to avoid dissonances and ensure the stability of educational policy over time.