Tunis/Tunisia — "The national consultation on education reform is one of the most important consultations in the history of Tunisia," President Kais Saied stressed on Monday evening, adding that "this is not an exaggeration because it concerns the future of the Tunisian people and the future of the nation".

He was speaking at a meeting at Carthage Palace on Monday with Education Minister Mohamed Ali Boughdiri, Higher Education and Scientific Research Minister Moncef Boukthir, Communication Technologies Minister Nizar Ben Neji, Religious Affairs Minister Ibrahim Chaibi and Family, Women, Children and the Elderly Minister Amal Belhaj Moussa.

"There will be no future for us without a national education and an education based on a set of reforms after the failure of the so-called reforms that were introduced in the last years and the years before," he stressed.

President Saied explained that the consultation is addressed to all Tunisians and not only to educators; "it is a national consultation open to all who wish to participate".

He stressed the need to protect the reform process after the consultation and the establishment of the Higher Education Council with all the elements of success. "Any mistake made in any reform can only be corrected after decades," he said.

The President pointed out that the Tunisian state will not abandon public education and is working to ensure the right to education for all on an equal basis.

He said that education was compulsory until the age of sixteen, but "we see it compulsory so that the prospects are wider".

He reviewed the series of educational reforms that followed in Tunisia until the 1958 reform, which was not easy to implement despite the circumstances that prompted it, and which led to a change, even a revolution, in society at the time.

He stressed that conclusions would be drawn from this consultation in order to issue the law establishing the Higher Education Council and then to carry out the reform on a solid basis.