This Monday morning, the Mazzouna secondary school courtyard turned into a disaster scene. An entire part of the surrounding wall collapsed, buried five teenagers under the rubble. Three of them, aged 16 to 17, did not survive. The distress cries have replaced the usual ringtones, leaving an entire community in shock.
But this drama is not an isolated accident. It is the symptom of an evil that has been consuming Tunisian education for decades.
More than half of Tunisian schools date from before 1985. Forty years without major renovations for many of them. In Mazzouna, the collapsed wall had been built in 1983, weakened by recent winds and seismic tremors, according to the first analyzes.
The Ministry of Education itself recognizes the extent of the disaster: 4,500 establishments out of 6,102 requires urgent interventions. In rural areas like Kasserine, Siliana or Kef, schools work without fence, without drinking water or stable electricity. The school, supposed to be a sanctuary of knowledge, has become a place of danger.
A long series of ignored alerts
Before Mazzouna, other dramas announcing had already taken place. In January 2023, three students from a private primary school in Monastir suffered injuries of variable gravity, following the collapse of part of the ceiling of a classroom. In October of the same year, the ceiling of a classroom collapsed at the “La République” school in Sidi Bouzid. Also in May 2023, a just built wall ceded to the pilot high school of Tozeur after a simple rain.
An overwhelming report of the Court of Auditors already pointed out in 2022 the existence of 1,300 schools with a “real structural risk”. But these alarm signals remained a dead letter.
Budgetary promises that crumble like the walls
The irony is cruel: the Minister of Education, Noureddine Nouri, had visited the governorate of Sidi Bouzid only a week before the tragedy, on April 8, 2025. In November 2024, he announced a draft budget of 8,044 million dinars for 2025, with an increase of 126 million compared to the previous year, promising that a party would be devoted to the renovation of school infrastructures.
Mazzouna’s tragedy caused a national shock wave. The General Federation of Secondary Education called for the suspension of courses in all colleges and high schools in the country this Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in tribute to the victims.
It is not only a wall that collapsed in Mazzouna. It is a whole education system that threatens to collapse: for lack of maintenance, for lack of investment, for lack of vision.
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