According to AMIDEAST, to address the problem of overcrowding in schools, the Algerian government has passed a new law that will open up university education to the private sector. Under the new law, private institutions will be required to report to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research such information as their curricula, student-teacher ratios, and evaluation methods. They will also be required to prove that they have a sufficient number of qualified teachers to ensure that the standard of teaching provided is at least as high as that found in state-run universities.
Public higher education in Algeria is struggling with overcrowding and a shortage of teachers. According to official statistics, nearly 4,000 teachers across all levels have left the country over the past ten years. This led Algeria to launch an international recruitment campaign for teachers of IT, economics, and law in 2005. For the 2008-2009 academic year, the ministry offered 5,688 new positions for junior lecturers and teachers. The current student-teacher ratio is 29.
With the possibility of as many as 2 million students in higher education by 2015, Algeria’s forty state-run universities and institutions could be overwhelmed. The Ministry of Higher Education hopes that private universities will fill the gap.