Towards an Uncertain Future: School Dropout in Tunisia

 

 

By Herchi Abdslem

 

Ziyad was my classmate until ninth grade at Hardoub preparatory school in Feriana, a border town in the Kasserine governorate, in central-western Tunisia. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Feriana became notorious for the fact that smuggling had turned into a major source of livelihood for most of its residents. Ziyad was not originally from the area. He moved here with his family from the nearby countryside after the Tunisian government shifted its attention and support from agriculture to tourism in the 1990s and the rural economic situation gradually deteriorated.

 

Ziyad was a very smart and cheerful boy, always ready for the questions of our teachers in scientific and literary subjects alike, which earned him the nickname ‘the shark’. A child with such a good grasp of all subjects was rare. Even his frequent absences did not affect his grades – he averaged 16 out of 20 in his last year at school in 1999.

 

At the start of the following year, I was surprised to learn that Ziyad had dropped out of school. I just could not see any reason for it. His explanation was: “Learning makes you unemployed, and Italy is the future.” Indeed, those years were the first signs of an unemployment crisis among Tunisian graduates of higher education, who were forced into freelance work to make ends meet. This had an impact on the future of many young people; some decided to drop out of school, others to sign up for shorter training courses with a guarantee of work right after graduation, even if their grades qualified them for higher education and to become doctors or engineers.

 

Less than a year after dropping out, Ziyad was arrested for drug use. I was deeply shocked. He spent a whole year in prison, then came out and turned to criminal activities. When we sought to speak to him for this investigation, he turned out to be in prison again. This investigation explores how deeply rooted school dropout in Tunisia is, and the real reasons that more than 100,000 pupils leave school early every year.

 

We travelled to Feriana for this investigation, where Ziyad still lives. While we did not find him, we encountered many others who had quit school, feeling justified in their decision by the high unemployment among university graduates, at around 30 percent compared to an overall unemployment rate of 16 percent. This was certainly an important argument for Hamouda (18) to drop out two years ago.

 

FERIANA City

 

But is this phenomenon limited to Tunisia?

 

A Global Phenomenon in a Local Context

 

According to a UNESCO report, approximately 258 million children and adolescents were not in school in 2018; 59 million of them had dropped out at primary school level. Sociologist Moncef Wannes   describes early school leaving as a global phenomenon affecting all countries, irrespective of their level of development. “Proof of its globality is that some estimate the dropout rate in the United States at around ten percent, and around twelve percent in France. This is a worldwide social phenomenon that does not affect Tunisia only. The difference lies in the kind of environment students find themselves in after the dropout. In poorer countries, their fate becomes unknown.”

 

In 2020, the global pandemic has put the world in a dangerous place. Lila Pieters, Head of Office at UNICEF Tunisia, says the fact that 1.5 billion children have been sent home from school because of the pandemic is absolutely terrifying: “The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a crisis in the education sector as well, a kind that humanity has never seen before throughout its history. Today, we are in a real crisis and all countries must make an effort to reopen schools.”

 

According to a UNICEF report, war ranks first in the list of the most important and immediate causes for school dropout. In 2017, the ongoing wars in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq threw the Middle East back to 2006 in terms of the number of students leaving school early. “We have many children in the Middle East who drop out of school,” Lila Pieters confirms. “The crisis in Syria and Yemen left behind a lot of victims and – unfortunately – children are the first victims, because the first right war takes away is their right to education.”

 

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Tunisia: More Than a Million Dropouts in the Last Ten Years

Many people wrongly believe the revolution is to blame for the high number of dropouts in Tunisia – in fact the trend goes back to the late 1970s and early 1980s. While early school leaving has always been a negative phenomenon with dire consequences for social structures, it is at least relatively stable in Tunisia. Ministry of Education reports on school dropout at primary, general preparatory and secondary school levels show 92,983 students leaving early in the 1984/1985 school year, compared to 104,043 in 2017/2018. Indeed, experts consider 100,000 school dropouts to be a disastrous record, but one that has nonetheless stabilised for the first time in the last forty years. Minister of Education Mohamed Hamdi says the Tunisian authorities have not concealed their concern about dropping out becoming more widespread. He sees the greatest danger as the lack of alternatives available to children afterwards: “When students fail in the education system, they reach a dead end.”

 

 

Why Do Children in Tunisia Leave School Early?

Hamouda Saadaoui: My ultimate dream is to find a decent job.

Tunisia’s Development Model Has Left 6,000 PhD Holders Unemployed

 

The stories vary, and so do the reasons. A year after Hamouda Saadaoui (18) left school, he still stands firmly by his decision. “I was in the second year of secondary school (eleventh grade) when I decided to drop out. Every time I went to help my dad in his café, which I did during my spare time, I noticed the many university graduates coming to the café. There were dozens of unemployed graduates forced to spend the whole day in the café. This sight was so depressing, I just kept on thinking about quitting school. I opened up to my father about it and found that he was thinking about it, too. There we sat and talked, and he convinced me. So, we agreed that I would drop out, which I did last year.”

 

Hamouda had an above-average grade of 13 out of 20. His decision to leave, as he explains, did not arise from difficulties of learning and passing examinations, but from concerns about the future. Mounir Hassine, Steering Committee Member of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES), is the head of a research study that the Forum has prepared on school dropout, titled Voluntary School Dropout: The Phenomenon and Causes. He says, “Tunisia’s current development model – in addition to generating thousands of unemployed – is fundamentally exclusive on the level of both social strata and regions. When examining the phenomenon of voluntary school dropout, we see that the highest percentage of pupils leaving school early is distributed among the poorest strata, and that they are socially excluded. In our study, we found that the children dropping out in the school year 2012/2013 belonged to the most vulnerable social strata.”

 

The development model has created significant social inequalities. If we compare a school in La Marsa or Carthage with a school in Hassi el-Ferid (Kasserine governorate) or in Fernana (Jendouba governorate), we notice enormous differences at all levels. The development model profoundly shapes the education system, which in turn generates thousands of unemployed young people. Experts overwhelmingly believe the Covid-19 pandemic will increase the unemployment rate, which already has a negative effect on the choices of young people like Hamouda, from 16 percent to perhaps 19 percent. On this note, sociologist Moncef Wannes   points out: “Today, more than 6,000 doctors are out of work. It is therefore only natural that this extreme situation fuels another kind of extreme, which is a dislike for school.”

 

Since he left school, Hamouda has decided to become an electrician, spending his days between the training centre, his father’s café and his house. This routine has made him content with his decision. “In a few years I will find work, while degree holders remain unemployed. I know two people with a PhD who now suffer because they can’t find work. As for my level of education, schools are no longer a source of education and there is the Internet, for example.” Hamouda speaks mockingly about his past dreams, when he was still enthusiastic about education, and concludes: “I discovered what reality is like, and now my ultimate dream is to find a decent job.”

 

Abderraouf Saadawi: I tried to save my son

Parents’ Level of Education

 

Hamouda has to help out at his father’s café every day. Abderraouf Saadawi (50) dropped out at primary school level himself, compelled by the difficult circumstances of his family, and began to work to earn his daily bread. In addition to the café, he owns a piece of land that doubles the income of his small family, which struggles against what he describes as a wave of soaring prices sweeping the country.

 

Irrespective of the circumstances that drove Abderraouf to drop out, there is a correlation between his educational level and his son leaving school, as shown in a December 2017 Centre for Economic and Social Studies and Research (CERES) report titled School Dropout in Societies – Experiences and Approaches. The report addresses family-related risk factors, categorised as follows: dynamic risk factors, such as the parents’ parenting, mentoring, commitment and support styles; intermediate risk factors, such as the pedagogical role of parents; and static risk factors, such as low socioeconomic status, family structure (disjointed versus coherent) and parents’ low educational level.

 

                                                                          School of Hammouda Saadaoui

 

 

In another study published by Tunis University, parental level of education likewise emerged as a major immediate factor of school dropout. It finds that the chance of early school leaving among children whose parents did not attend school beyond elementary level is 42 percent; this drops to 10 percent if the father is a university graduate.

 

Having convinced his son Hamouda to leave school, Abderraouf considers the decision a rescue from the clutches of certain unemployment. “Looking at what is happening in the schools today and the number of graduates piling up at the doorstep of the cafés, I tried to save my son. I didn’t think of my son’s level of education, because schools are no longer seen as places of education. So I decided to take him out of school and I’m one hundred percent convinced it was the right decision. But I did not force Hamouda. We spoke for a long time and he was convinced, too.”

 

 

Rida Mhamdi : I failed, dropped out, and then regretted it

The Parallel Economy and Quick Money

 

“I dropped out thinking it would secure a good future and open up a new path. But it did not secure that future and there was no other path,” Rida Mhamdi (38) recalls. Rida quit school in 1998 after failing eighth grade. He chose to become a carpenter, enrolling in a vocational training centre and completing a two-year qualification course. But he has never put that qualification to use for a single day.

 

“The problem is that after obtaining the qualification, you must train another two years in one of the carpentry shops for a token salary. Imagine I would spend two years and earn only pennies [at that time, the daily wage was at most the equivalent of $1.60] just to get that carpenter’s confirmation that I was ready to work. The circumstances did not allow me to wait another two years.” To save time, Rida found work in construction, one of the sectors that offers the most job opportunities.

 

                                                                                   Ridha Mhamdi

 

Rida also works as a smuggler, where a two-hour engagement earns him between ten and twenty dollars – as much as a whole week in construction. The quick money to be made in smuggling has prompted many to leave school and work in the parallel economy, which today makes up half of the formal. Sociologist Moncef Wannes  sees this as the main reason behind school dropout. According to him, there are groups of pupils with high psychosocial potential to adapt quickly to the parallel economy and smuggling. These groups became rich within a few years. As a consequence, and as long as there is more money in smuggling than in decent work, academic achievement seems unattractive.

 

On his part, Minister of Education Mohamed Hamdi acknowledges that, although education is free of charge in Tunisia, some families reach a point where they are unable to grant their children further education, for example if they have to send them to work to satisfy certain family needs. Some of those children end up engaged in illegal activities.

 

Smuggling used to only be a problem in border governorates. A few years before the revolution, it began to spread to other areas and into the capital, where markets now sell smuggled goods just a few hundred metres from the Ministry of the Interior. After the revolution, smuggling became one of the greatest challenges for successive governments. In fact, it contributed to the emergence of a new bourgeoisie, often called smugglers‘ or peripheral bourgeoisie by experts – people who managed to amass huge fortunes from smuggling materials such as copper, spare parts and iron, as well as contraband articles. People from many social strata in Tunisia have been attracted to going down the same route.

 

18 years have passed since Rida left school early. Today, he says, “I feel regret, of course. I rushed my decision. I need to mention though that this regret will always remain tied to my financial situation, because if my current situation was great, I don’t think I would regret leaving school.”

 

A Long Journey from Primary School to University

School Dropout in the Eyes of Pedagogues

 

A teacher at preparatory and primary school level is also called a murabbi, implying much more than just knowledge transfer and instruction, but the shaping of a child as a person. Nabil Ali is one of those who prefers this description and is proud of his role. Having worked in the education sector for 18 years, he considers himself a specialist at teaching first-graders. Bitterly, he recalls the loss of one of his pupils in the last year of primary school.

 

Nabil Ali in his classroom

 

“I had this little troublemaker in my class who was missing frequently. I began to approach him by integrating him more in exercises and speaking to him. It took a lot of effort, but he eventually stopped missing class so often. His enthusiasm to learn returned. Only a week later I was surprised to hear that he had dropped out. Why? Because another teacher had been cruel and told him, ‘You better leave school and find work as long as you’re so useless at school.’ And here we see the importance of the pedagogical side of our work.”

 

In Tunisia, pupils spend eleven years studying all subjects before they can choose what to focus on in the third year of secondary school and the baccalaureate (Matura). It is a system that UNICEF Tunisia’s Lila Pieters finds unaccommodating. “Not all students have the capacity to learn all subjects for so many years. In Switzerland, for example, only a very small number of pupils choose to study all subjects (a common core). The great majority pursue technical or vocational school qualifications.” Nabil Ali agrees and thinks that, in this fast-moving world, the Tunisian path from first year of primary school to university degree is too long.

 

Our research into dropout rates at the different stages of school education reveals that the percentage increases in transitional years – seventh grade (transferring from primary to preparatory school) and tenth grade (the first year of secondary school) – as well as the final year or baccalaureate, where students have to pass a national examination that permits them to enter university. At all levels, the dropout rate is higher among male students than female students, except at baccalaureate stage, where girls become more likely to leave.

 

According to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, the dropout rate used to be highest at primary school level. However, a 2002 law prohibited pupils between the ages of 6 and 16 from quitting school. ”Dropouts became delayed from primary to the basic level, but the law did not counteract the phenomenon,” says Forum steering committee member Mounir Hassine. ”Any such changes to the education system without considering their psychological impact in the other school years will have psychological effects on students and push them to drop out.”

 

From a sociological perspective, Moncef Wannes  says, examination years very often create a state of fear in students and provide the possibility of failure. Many students thus prefer not to face exams, especially as they often face the transition from one level to the next all alone, without mental support and guidance.

 

 

2016 Ministry of Education Report

 

Regarding Nabil Ali’s dropout student, Hussain remarks that “52 percent of children who drop out don’t have learning problems, but they suffer from a lack of integration with their fellow classmates or the school in general, or have difficulty following up. Some teachers don’t have the competence or experience to deal with such cases.”

Dropout as an Opportunity – Fawzi Attafi, Toymaker

 

A school’s lack of progressiveness, inefficient pedagogical framework, are all reasons that students leave school early. Some look for more dynamic and progressive learning platforms, such as Fawzi Attafi (30), who draws a very different picture of his dropout. Fawzi lives in Aïn Draham (Jendouba governorate) in northwest Tunisia, which, despite its rich forests and water resources, has been marginalised for the past sixty years. After dropping out of school in 2007, he spent more than five years working in an amusement arcade, before he decided to start his own business manufacturing wooden toys.

 

Fawzi is pleased when he looks back at what he has achieved. “It was not easy. I first spent two years working alone at home, which didn’t get me anywhere. I then enrolled in a workshop on the manufacture of wooden toys by a German organisation. This is really where it all began. Afterwards I was able to secure funding and start my own business.”

 

Today, Fawzi takes part in numerous exhibitions across Tunisia and has even received a creativity award for one of his pieces. He sees the problem not as the dropout itself, but rather in the options available afterwards, and believes it is the responsibility of the state to guide early school leavers and support young entrepreneurs. Lila Pieters from UNICEF Tunisia points out that the challenges associated with dropping out have eased in developed countries, due to the fact that the authorities have put many options in place for leavers, including vocational training.

 

Fawzi Attafi’s business has in fact created a new alternative to school. After four years of continuous work, he has a fully equipped workshop and has created at least five jobs. Having been successful with his work in Tunisian exhibitions and popular with tourists, he is now even considering offering his products abroad.

 

Fawzi Attafi

 

Inadequate Solutions for a Growing Problem

 

Minister of Education Mohamed Hamdi points to a new programme to tackle the dropout phenomenon, involving the three ministries of Social Affairs, Education and Vocational Training. “We have been working on a project we will launch soon, called Second Chance School. We intend to open centres for early school leavers to train them, attract them again with fast qualification opportunities, and assess their situations in order to redirect them – to specific vocational courses, other training centres, or back to school.” UNICEF Tunisia is among the project partners, and Lila Pieters explains that the focus will initially be on the establishment of two centres in the capital. If the experiment is successful, these centres will be rolled out in all governorates of the Republic.

 

Moncef Wannes  is critical of the way the state has handled the dropout problem. “The phenomenon could have been controlled, but in Tunisia there are no mechanisms to do so and no institutions that return school runaways to the classroom. Not even the National Campaign to Combat School Dropouts was successful. It seems that it slowly withered and never achieved its objectives.” Mounir Hassine, on the other hand, maintains that the most important measure is not to return children to school, but to eliminate the causes of dropout.

 

Tunisian Minister of Eduation : Mahamed El Hamdi

 

This is a global phenomenon, French researcher Rémi Thibert likewise insists, citing a dropout rate of 11.8 percent in France, 12.5 percent in the United Kingdom, and as high as 20 percent in Spain. Despite these numbers, dropping out is not perceived so negatively in these countries, due to an environment that is prepared for early school leavers and offers other avenues to learning and skill. The 2012 statistics for a correction facility in Tunis show that 60 percent of delinquents that year were school dropouts, which confirms the role of the social environment in determining the fate of students.

 

Our investigation into the cases of Rida Mhamdi, Hamouda Saadaoui and Ziyad also shows that early school leaving poses a great danger to society, but not as great as the environment that confronts these adolescents afterwards. The Tunisian state has failed to create opportunities and solutions for school dropouts.

 

In fact, sending early leavers back to school, which its approach has been centred on since 2015, has not yielded convincing results. This is due to the fact that dropouts are forced back to school while the reasons behind their decision to leave – often the inability to integrate and adjust to the school environment or system – are not resolved. This likely leads to one outcome only: a second dropout.

 

Moreover, society’s perception of school as the only road to success and a condescending view of vocational training as the final destination for school failures have contributed to the collapse of that system, robbing the state of the only alternative – as deficient as it might be – it can offer dropouts.

 

In comparison to several European countries, Tunisia’s dropout rate of 10 percent seems unremarkable. In contrast, however, these countries have begun to address the causes of dropout and provide alternatives to school which can turn young people into valued members of society. In these countries, young men like Fawzi Attafi find favourable conditions to start their own business; laws are flexible enough to enable men like Rida Mhamdi to work as carpenters without having to give up on a decent salary; boys like Hamouda Saadaoui are given options and space to choose their path carefully and not rush into a vocation that does not match their skills in media and video games; and finally, in these countries, state and society benefit from the intelligence of someone like Ziyad, who is currently in prison.                                 

Years ago, I watched a programme on police raids on a private Tunisian channel. In one raid, the police arrested a gang on charges of trafficking in a coastal city – among them was Ziyad. While I was watching the sad footage, I recalled distant memories of Ziyad. I remembered the words of our mathematics teacher, handing him back his exam paper: “Ziad, if we were in a different place and society, you would be among the elite and work in the most important scientific institutions.” We did not understand the meaning of those words at the time.

Many years passed, and for Ziyad scientific institutions became prisons. In the winter of 1999, his bright future became a very different, dark and uncertain one, surrounded by walls on all sides. The circumstances of Ziyad, Rida and Hamouda are all different, and so are the reasons they dropped out. What they have in common is the challenging social environment they found themselves in afterwards – an environment that sows uncertainty from the start, and threatens to lead to an even more uncertain future.