Tunisia's Education Ministry Advances Teacher Recruitment Competition and Ends Sixth‑Grade Entrance Exam

The Tunisian Ministry of Education defended its newly launched external competition for recruiting secondary, technical and technological teachers, stating it complies with Law No. 18 of 2025, which reserves special hiring measures for long‑term unemployed university graduates. The move, announced on 11 February 2026, has drawn criticism from deputy Abdessalam Dahmani, who argues the competition undermines the rights of unemployed graduates and overlooks the expectations of substitute teachers whose names are not in the candidate database.

On 6 May 2026, Education Minister Diomaye Faye signed a decree finalising another major reform: the abolition of the entrance exam for admission to the sixth grade. The decree, adopted by the Council of Ministers, marks the formal cancellation of the long‑standing concours d’entrée en classe de sixième, a key element of the broader overhaul of Tunisia's education system.