DO YOU KNOW ALGERIA?

We have realized that many people don’t know where Algeria is.

Too many people ignore everything about the Algerian society.

Too many people think that Algeria is a part of Europe and France.

In this project, we’ll try to help student and teachers to get more information about Algeria, its towns, its villages, the people, the customs and many others features that make my country so nice and so lovable.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zmkwwtm4qwu/Stereotype 1…Do you know -Algeria.doc

Where is Algeria?

Algeria officially called the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, is situated in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean Sea, the second largest on the African continent and the Arab world after Sudan, and the eleventh-largest country in the world.

Algeria is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, a few kilometers of the Western Sahara in the southwest, Morocco in the west and northwest, and the Mediterranean Sea in the north.

Berbers have inhabited Algeria since at least 10,000 BC. After 1000 BC, the Carthaginians established settlements along the Algerian coast. After Punic Wars, Berbers became independent of Carthage, and Berber kingdoms began to emerge. The most important kingdom was Numidia.

The story of the Roman occupation started on 200 BC, however. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Berbers became independent again in many areas, while the Vandals took control over other parts, where they remained until expelled by the generals of the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I. The Byzantine Empire then retained a precarious grip on the east of the country until the coming of the Arabs in the eighth century.

The two branches, Sanhadja and Zanata, were also divided into tribes, with each Maghreb region made up of several tribes. Several Berber dynasties emerged during the Middle Ages.

Arrival of Islam

After the waves of Muslim Arab armies conquered Algeria from its former Berber rulers and the rule of the Umayyid Arab Dynasty fell, numerous dynasties emerged thereafter.

Having converted the Kutama of Kabylie to its cause, the Fatimids overthrew the Rustamids, and conquered Egypt, leaving Algeria and Tunisia to their Zirid vassals. When the latter rebelled, the Fatimids sent in the Banu Hilal, a populous Arab tribe, to weaken them.

Ottoman rule

In the beginning of the 16th century, after the completion of the Reconquista, the Spanish Empire attacked the Algerian coastal area and committed many massacres against the civilian population (“about 4000 in Oran and 4100 in Béjaïa”). They took control of Mers El Kébir in 1505, Oran in 1509, Béjaïa in 1510, Tenes, Mostaganem, Cherchell and Dellys in 1511, and finally Algiers in 1512.

On 15 January 1510 the King of Algiers was forced into submission to the king of Spain; the Spanish Empire turned the Algerian population to subservient. Barberous Hayreddin Barbarossa and Oruç Reis who previously helped Andalusian Muslims and Jews to escape from the Spanish oppression in 1492 liberated Algiers with 1300 Turkish and 16 Galliots and became ruler, and Algiers joined the Ottoman Empire.

Algeria was made part of the Ottoman Empire by Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa and his brother Aruj in 1517. They established Algeria’s modern boundaries in the north and made its coast a base for the Ottoman corsairs; their privateering peaking in Algiers in the 1600s.

The School System

The educational system is structured into primary foundation school for nine years, followed by secondary education school for three years, and then the tertiary (university) level. Algerian education is still grounded in the French fact-acquisition orientation, and teaching is almost exclusively in the lecture and memorization mode. In 1996, the total enrollment at primary and secondary schools was equivalent to 86 percent of the school age population (89 percent of the boys, 82 percent of the girls). Enrollment at primary schools in the relevant age group was 97 percent for boys and 91 percent for girls.

A 1995 UNICEF study reported that early childhood education services for children up to 6 years of age were limited. Fewer than 50,000 children were enrolled, exclusive of those in quranic preschools (quranic schools accommodate large numbers of preschool children.). Of those enrolled, 10 percent of children up to 3 years old were in nurseries and 90 percent of 3 to 6 year olds were in kindergartens. Fifty-five percent of those in kindergarten were urban children. Estimates in 1995 of the percentage of preschool age children enrolled in some form of preschool (including quranic schools) ranged from 3 to 20 percent. Reports from 1995 indicated that no preschool services existed for children with special educational needs except for special sections in kindergartens attached to primary schools for those with hearing impairments. Preprimary schools are conducted in Arabic and are not compulsory.

The Foundation School (École Fondamentale et Polytechnique), replaced the French 10-year compulsory school model with a nine-year model. Primary and middle schools were combined, scientific and technical literacy stressed, and closer connections sought between schooling and work. Classes are taught in Arabic, with French considered the first foreign language. Students are oriented either toward secondary school or toward vocational training.

Primary education (Enseignement Primaire) is organized into three cycles, each comprising of three years. It is compulsory for the nine years between ages 6 and 15. Students completing primary education follow one of three tracks—general, technical or vocational. Students take a final exam (brevet d’enseignement fondamental) that they must pass for admission to secondary education.

In 1996, the total enrollment in primary schools included 94 percent of the appropriate age groups (97 percent of the boys, 91 percent of the girls). The ministry reports that in 1996 there were 15,426 state primary schools with 4,674,947 students (46 percent were girls) and 149,958 teachers for the first through the sixth years, and 3,038 middle schools (for those age 7 to 9) with 1,762,761 students, of which 38 percent were girls.

There are two types of secondary education: technical and general. Secondary education (Enseignement Secondaire) begins at age 15 and ends when students take the baccalauréat examination before they proceed to one of the universities, state technical institutes, or vocational training centers, or move directly into employment. The academic year is from September to July, with a 15-day break in December and another in March. Schooling is free, although some scholarships are offered by the state for living expenses.

In 1996, enrollment in the secondary schools included 56 percent of the appropriate age groups (58 percent of the boys and 54 percent of the girls). There were 1,033 secondary schools with 52,210 teachers and 853,303 students. Admission to secondary schools is based upon the student’s primary school grades and the student quota at each institution, as set by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. Instruction is in Arabic.

Higher education is comprised of universities, national institutes for higher education, engineering schools, and teachers’ colleges. The institutions administered by the Ministry of Education produce about 90 percent of the bachelor’s degrees. The remaining institutions come under the control of other ministries.

In 1995-1996, a total of 347,410 students enrolled in higher education. Admission is based on the student quota for each institution (set by the ministry) and grades. Allocation to fields of study depends on how well students did in primary subjects in each field. The teaching staff is largely Algerian.

possible mentions are: “Passable” when the general average is at least equal to 10/20 and lower than 12/20; “Rather Well” when the general average equals or exceeds 12/20 but is less than 14/20; “Well” when the general average is at least 14/20 and lower than 16/20; and “Very Well” when the general average is equal or higher than 16/20. The general average is calculated by giving equal weighting to the average of the examinations and the thesis defense. Only those who earn the rating of Very Well, Well, and Rather Well can gain admittance to a doctoral program. Doctoral candidates must also complete a thesis reporting original research and an oral thesis defense.

Language: In the postcolonial Arabization program, restoring Arabic as the general language required teaching citizens who had been educated in a foreign language to learn and use their own. The Higher Council for the National Language oversees the Arabization process. Every government organization created an Arabization department to plan lessons for its workers.

In a radical reversal of policy, the Haut-Commissariat a l’amazighité was created (following an eight-month boycott of school by nearly a million students) and Berber dialects (Amazigh) were introduced into the schools in 1995 by decree of the president. This was a tremendous political-cultural victory for the Berbers (Amazigh means “free men”). Barely 15 years earlier, scribbling a few words in tiffinagh, the characters of the Berber language, meant a stay in prison. One-third of the 48 provinces introduced pilot classes in Berber in the last year of middle school (ninth year) and the first year of high school (tenth year). Training courses for teachers were organized and exams planned for the brevet d’enseignement moyen (middle school certificate) and for the baccalauréat.