ABSTRACT
Since its independence in 1962, Algeria has experienced a number of economic reforms. To understand education as a factor in both Algeria’s economic decline and future recovery, it is important to emphasise that education is an integral component in the broader economic system, linked, for better or for worse, to its periods of inertia and upheaval. While Kada Akacem provides a more detailed account elsewhere in this volume, I begin with a brief summary of Algeria’s economic policies in the 40 years since independence with respect to their impact on the current state of higher education and student benefits (housing, financial aid and transportation). The evolution of higher education has been embedded in the larger process of socialist-inspired, state-led development planning. The first four-year economic plan (1970–73), the cornerstones of which were industrialisation and social justice, included comprehensive reforms of the education sector designed to meet the needs of heavy industry and guarantee widespread access. Despite several modifications since the 1971 education reforms, the current system is still based on the outdated 1971 model, which has not kept its pace with new developments in communication and information technologies. As a result, the skills of many who are products of this system are now obsolete, contributing to Algeria’s crisis.
