Inégalites d’instruction hommes-femmes en Algérie

For long, education was the privilege of men in Algeria. From the beginning, one of the priorities of Independent Algeria has been to bring all children to school, without any sex discrimination. Forty years later, almost all children aged 6-15 are at school, boys and girls as well, while the access to upper secondary schools and universities became open to everybody. However, beyond age 16 (limit for compulsory schooling), girls continue to study more than boys and get more success in achieving diplomas, what resulted in a surprising inversion of gender inequalities in education. This phenomenon, started in large cities and some pioneer wilayas quickly expanded to villages and diffused to all the national territory. It is a major piece of changes that occurred in modern Algeria, the development of which must be analysed objectively, since it will ask many question on its causes and consequences.

Zahia Ouadah-Bedidi