Published on 24/10/2017 at 07:32 • Updated on 12/06/2020 at https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/normandie/seine-maritime/rouen/
The National Museum of Education (Munaé) of Rouen in a dossier of French Algeria, through an exhibition “The school in Algeria, Algeria at the school, from 1830 to the present day”. The organizers hope to one day be able to mount it in Algiers.
French Algeria through the prism of the school
The exhibition “The school in Algeria, Algeria at the school, from 1830 to the present day”, designed by Jean-Robert Henry, researcher and specialist in the Mediterranean world is open to the public until April 2, 2018, at Munaé, the only museum in France dedicated to school.
Areas of shadows and lights
“We want to show the colonial dimension of French school history (…) The Algerian case is quite interesting because it shows a lot of shadows and lights, some very good things and others completely failed” Mr. Henry told reporters at the opening.
“For this Algerian case, we did not want to bring everything back to a Franco-French vision, on the contrary,” he said. “We tried to show the extremely complex nature of the school system that the French found on the spot and how this complexity has been maintained until today,” he added.
When the French took possession of Algeria in 1830, they found small Koranic schools in villages but also secondary level medersas (school, editor’s note) which they paid little attention to, and sometimes even destroyed.
Engraving by Ferdinand Florentin Froment (1851-1901), after a painting by Henry Jules Jean Geoffroy (1852-1924) presented at the Salon des Champs Elysées in 1896. • © National Museum of Education in Rouen
One in two Algerian children went to school in 1962
When the time comes for the reforms of the Third Republic with Jules Ferry, the European population will fully benefit from it, but compulsory education will not concern indigenous children, with a few exceptions. Only 10% of them went to school in 1940.
After the Second World War Paris will work twice as hard, but “the too late reforms will not prevent the” Algerian problem “from maturing in violence” according to the exhibition. In 1962, 50% of Muslim children attended school.
“All those who were able to enter the French system became elites upon independence,” said Ahmed Djebbar, former Algerian Minister of Education (1992-94).
After independence, schooling will continue thanks to Franco-Algerian cooperation.
According to Mr. Henry, the colonial school experience continues to produce effects today in Algeria, with the debates on the place of the French language in education.
“Our ambition is that this exhibition can be seen in Algeria,” said Florence Hudowicz, curator of the exhibition.
Consult the the full dossier here :
https://www.reseau-canope.fr/musee/fileadmin/user_upload/2017-Alge__rie_Dossier_de_presse_ok.pdf
