Algeria to Replace French Language with English at its Universities

Algeria's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Algeria's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Algeria to Replace French Language with English at its Universities

Algeria's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Algeria's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Algerian authorities have decided to replace the French language with English at universities, starting the new academic year in September.

Last year, they launched procedures to start teaching English, in the first educational stages, to replace French in wake of severe political tensions with Paris.

On July 1, the Ministry of Higher Education’s Secretary-General sent a letter to university directors asking them to organize meetings and form pedagogical teams before the summer vacation to prepare for the adoption of English as the language of instruction in the next academic year.

He confirmed that the National Committee would supervise and follow up on the preparations and will organize field visits to university institutions in July to evaluate their preparations.

Observers tied the decision to new tensions between Algeria and France.

Algeria is monitoring with concern efforts by far-right French lawmakers to annul a 1968 agreement that controls immigration between the two countries. The MPs claim that the deal has not helped limit immigration to France.

Algeria, meanwhile, rejected a French request to take back thousands of its illegal migrants. Paris retaliated by cutting the number of visas issued to Algerians.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was scheduled to visit France in mid-May but the trip was postponed to June and in the end it never transpired. No reason was given.

The cancellation of the visit could be related to the disputes that never end between the two countries.

Algeria was a French colony for 130 years and gained independence in 1962 after a devastating eight-year war. Paris has repeatedly refused to apologize for the occupation, a source of deep contention with Algiers.

In 2021, Algerian government agencies decided to stop using French in their correspondence amid tensions with France.

They decided to begin the adoption of Arabic on November 1, the date of the anniversary of the eruption of the Algerian revolution against French colonialism.

Observers said the move was in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s denial of "the existence of an Algerian nation" before the French invasion of Algeria in 1830.



UN: Lifelines Keeping People Alive in Gaza Are Collapsing

21 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Mourners pray near the bodies of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes, according to medics, during the funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
21 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Mourners pray near the bodies of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes, according to medics, during the funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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UN: Lifelines Keeping People Alive in Gaza Are Collapsing

21 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Mourners pray near the bodies of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes, according to medics, during the funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
21 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Mourners pray near the bodies of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes, according to medics, during the funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is appalled by an accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions in Gaza "where the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing," his spokesperson said on Monday.

"He deplores the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

"Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and by other humanitarian organizations."

Israeli ground troops for the first time Monday pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors.

Deir al-Balah is the only Gaza city that has not seen major ground operations or suffered widespread devastation in 21 months of war, leading to speculation that the Hamas militant group holds large numbers of hostages there. The main group representing hostages’ families said it was “shocked and alarmed” by the incursion, which was confirmed by an Israeli military official, and demanded answers from Israeli leaders.

Israel says the seizure of territory in Gaza is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release hostages, but it is a major point of contention in ongoing ceasefire talks.

The UN food agency, meanwhile, accused Israeli forces of firing on a crowd of Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid over the weekend. Gaza's Health Ministry called it one of the deadliest attacks on aid-seekers in the war that has driven the territory to the brink of famine.