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A mixture of enthusiasm and tension.
Back to school at the middle school college (CEM) Bahloul Boudini, located in the city AADL 3,000 dwellings in Baba Hassan, took place this Sunday in a mixture of enthusiasm and tension. Between children impatient to find their comrades and parents confronted with administrative procedures deemed absurd, this return to school revealed the persistent difficulties despite the official announcements.
From 7:30 am, a dense crowd rushed in front of the school portal. The students, dressed in their traditional aprons – white for college students, blue for boys and roses for primary girls – were waiting to cross the establishment’s threshold. The atmosphere was both festive and tense, CEM Boudini remains the only school establishment capable of welcoming all adolescents and schoolchildren in the city.
But the enthusiasm of children was quickly tempered by administrative rigor. At the entrance, strict filtering was applied: only college students with a complete correspondence notebook could access the classes. The others had to wait outside, time to regularize their file. The supervisors recalled that the delivery of the correspondence notebook imperatively depended on the legalization of the internal regulations at the town hall, precious sesame to enter class, triggering growls and incomprehension among families.
“It’s absurd!” », Surgery Soraya, mother of a college girl of 14 years in 4th year. She entrusted to Independent young : “My daughter has been frequent this college for four years and each start of the school year requires us to redo the file. We were however assured that the digital platform would simplify the registrations. How is it possible that in 2025, children are still prevented from returning to school because of bureaucratic procedures? »»
For other parents, the issue of transfers also posed a problem, despite the insurance of the ministry. Deploring the heaviness of administrative procedures, several had to file a day of leave to accompany their children and recover or legalize the necessary documents, often in a real administrative marathon between the college and the town hall located at the other end of the city, or between distant establishments over 20 km.
In addition, the overload of classes has fueled discussions. Mostly, the workforce reaches nearly 40 students per class, far beyond what the ministry had announced as objective to unclog the rooms. “How can our children follow properly under these conditions?” », Asks a parent, already evoking the need for private lessons to compensate for this imbalance.
The difficulties do not stop there. The city, delivered for more than four years, has only one school establishment, shared between primary and college. Chalets have been installed as a provisional solution, but they are insufficient in the face of the increase in staff and especially unsanitary, according to numerous testimonies of parents. The local association has been mobilizing for years to improve the situation, but despite correspondence and meetings with the local authorities and promises of the delegated wali, no concrete solution has yet been implemented on the ground.
Parents joining the discontent also deplored the fact that their children were returned to the house because of the requirement for the port of the deck from the first day, believing that this rigorous rule transformed the start of the school year into a test rather than a party. “For years, the first day of the school should be a day of joy, a bit like Eid. But today, it is rather the obstacle course! Comments a father, visibly exasperated.
Over the minutes, discussions between parents and supervisors have lived, alternating frustration and solidarity. Some children were finally able to enter after the 10am recess, after a real administrative marathon, while others remained stuck in still unfinished approaches.
Back to school at CEM Boudini perfectly illustrates the contrasts of an expanding city: the enthusiasm of students to find their comrades comes up against the rigidity of administrative procedures and structural inadequacies. Between the satisfaction of a few parents and the frustration of many others, this school year remains a reminder that access to education, although proclaimed constitutional law, can still face very real obstacles on the ground.