Boring Rant About Tunisian Higher Education

Ten million people, twenty-five percent off which are under the age of fourteen, populate the country of Tunisia. The median age is twenty-eight, this places a huge strain on the education system. The county can’t seem to build enough schools and universitys are being hit the hardest with a average class size of fifty. The language institute was built for 2,000 people but right now its enrollment is around 6,000. The university’s of Tunisia are very different then the colleges of America. A single campus is spread out all over the city. For example the school I attend at the language institute is one small part of the University of the 7th of November. Which is one of thirteen public universities in Tunisia. If a student gains admittance into one of these schools their tuition is completely covered. Admittance completely depends on a single test called the baccalaureate. Each test covers all of the subjects covered in secondary school including math, philosophy, foreign languages, science (if you chose to study it in secondary school) and geography. These tests take place after the forth level of secondary school (its much more common for students to fail a grade in Tunisia then the States) and the entire nation holds their breath as students take exams.
When the results of these exams return the students pick which fields they would like to study based on their scores. For example you need the highest scores to pursue the medical fields or engineering so if a student gets their results and sees that they didn’t make a certain bracket they wont even list certain occupations. Then in order of scores the students are gone through and placed in their first choice until it is full and so on until all of the schools are full. The first five choices Tunisian students placed in are; business and management, computer science, engineering, arts and humanities and then languages. They say that it is a mistake that so many students end up in arts and humanities and those schools are usually used as places to throw the leftover students. These numbers don’t reflect the vast amount of students who attend the 24 Institutes of Technological studies like my host cousin.
Education at the standard state schools is extremely difficult. Of all the university students in Tunisia only 14% reach graduation. You must pass difficult exams to move from one year to the next and the average time to gain a four-year degree is six years. The government is on the verge of changing all the programs to three-years and therefore making it so more students can graduate and that it will lighten the financial load on the country. The government has also decided on the laughable decree of adding 1000 new opinions for students to major in so more students will get their first or second choice.
Upon hearing our guest speaker talk about Tunisian higher education I am even more thankful that I was born and educated in America. My SAT scores where fair but less than stellar. As you know have major problems with spelling and handwriting, a trait that would hamper my writing scores. Most of all I enjoy freedom, the freedom to go to a university and major in liberal arts. The freedom to take classes like Arabic which in no way relate to my future career and the freedom to chose my own direction in life. If I had taken the baccalaureate the person grading my test would take one look at my handwriting and stick me in business. There would be no chance to climb my own mountains, and to major in something more difficult for me but something that I truly love. I think the country of Tunisia is only hurting its self by separating its population from its passions.