"The school drop-out rate has fallen in recent years, from 100,000 a year to around 63,000," said on Tuesday Director General of Secondary Education at the Education Ministry Ahmed Sellimi. In a statement to the media on the fringes of the national festival "All united against school drop-out," organised on July 11-13 at the Tunis Science City, Sellimi pointed out that second-chance schools, technical colleges and the promotion of school life had helped achieve these positive results. For her part, Head of Projects at the Tunisian Mediterranean Centre (TuMed) Hana Amri indicated that as part of the project "Don't play with rights - The right to education," 25% of pupils who had dropped out of 100 schools in the governorates of Bizerte, Jendouba, Siliana, Kasserine and Gafsa had been reintegrated either into their schools or into vocational training or defence and professional integration centres. "As part of this project, launched by TuMed in September 2020, regional committees comprising representatives of civil society and government structures were set up to take the necessary steps to reintegrate students who had dropped out of school," she said. Amri underlined in this regard, that these committees have been working on ironing out the obstacles that had led the concerned pupils to drop out of school, in order to guarantee all the right conditions for their reintegration into the education and training system. Besides, Hana Amri pointed out that the National Festival " All united against school drop-out" is an opportunity to debate with several experts and stakeholders in the field of childhood on many issues such as ways to enforce children's rights and fight against their economic exploitation, as well as the impact of climate change on the school environment in rural areas. Funded by the European Union, the "Don't play with rights - The right to education" project is implemented by TuMed in partnership with the Ministries of Education and the Family and the national authority for combating trafficking in persons.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse