Samia Kassab-Cherfi, winner of 16th Ibn Khaldoun-Senghor Translation Award560,000 participants take part in national consultation on reform of education sector

Tunisian academician and translator Samia Kassab-Cherfi is the winner of the 16th Ibn Khaldoun-Senghor Translation Award for her translation of the novel "Barg Ellil" by Béchir Khraïef, published by Sud Editions (Tunisia, 2023). The official award ceremony was held on December 15, 2023 at the headquarters of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), in partnership with the International Organization of la Francophonie (OIF). The award was presented by OIF Representative for North Africa Haoua Acyl and ALECSO Director of the Department of Science and Scientific Research Mohamed Sanad Abu Darwish. The members of the jury, headed this year by Bassam Baraké (Lebanon), commended the extensive documentary work carried out by the translator "to meet the challenges of this historical reconstruction that author Béchir Khraïef has sought to offer his readers, whether in terms of toponyms, the numerous intertextual references, the terminology related to armaments and armoury, music and alchemy," adding that Kassab-Cherfi's translation could rightly be described as a "consecration of the Tunisian literary universe." The jury, headed by Secretay General of the Union of Arab Translators (Lebanon) Bassam Baraké, was made up of Professor of Philosophy at Mohamed V University in Rabat, translator, essayist and literary critic Abdesslam Benabdelali (Morocco), Professor of French Literature and translator Zahida Darwiche-Jabbour (Lebanon), professor emeritus at the Ecole supérieure de traducteurs et interprètes (France), philosopher, translator and writer Mohammed Mahjoub (Tunisia) and translator and professor of French literature at Paris-Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi Hana Subhi (France and Iraq). Created in 2007, the Ibn Khaldoun - Léopold Sédar Senghor Award is the fruit of cooperation between the OIF and ALECSO. The Award is designed to encourage translators of studies and research works in the fields of literature and social and human sciences in the Arab and French-speaking worlds, and to promote mutual enrichment between Arab and Francophone cultures.Its aim is to promote cultural and linguistic diversity and encourage all forms of cultural exchange between the Arab world and the French-speaking world. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse 560,000 participants have taken part in the National Consultation on the Reform of the Education System and Teaching before its closure. Most of these participants are under 15 years old. The number of participants in this consultation, which started on September 15, reached 559,290 (290,552 females and 268,738 males). The age group of young people under 15 years old represents the highest percentage of participants (43.2%) while the age group between 16 and 20 years old reached 22.2 %, followed by those 41- 65 years (20%) while the participation rate of the age group between 31 and 40 did not exceed 8.7%, according to the latest figures published on the national consultation website. The national consultation on the reform of the education and teaching sector began on December 15, 2023 at the request of President of the Republic Kais Saied, through an online platform developed for this purpose, in conjunction with the 2023-2024 school. The consultation included 20 questions on several themes, namely ear ly childhood education and family protection, teaching programmes, the evaluation system and school time, coordination and complementarity between education, vocational training and higher education as well as equal opportunities and lifelong learning. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse