19 – 21 October, 2020


19 October, 2020: The gradual opening of mosques “is done in accordance with scientific and thoughtful standards and under strict health control,” Minister of Religious Affairs and Wakfs, Youcef Belmehdi, said Monday in Mostaganem.

In a press briefing on the sidelines of his visit to the wilaya, Mr. Belmehdi said that the gradual opening of mosques is “scientifically studied, under strict health control by the National Scientific Committee and the Monitoring Committee of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Wakfs,” adding that this procedure will subsequently affect the rest of the mosques, schools and institutes of Koranic education and training institutes for imams.

The decision to open mosques is subject to the study of a committee headed by the wali and includes all concerned services, including the Directorate of Religious Affairs and Wakfs which determines the mosque concerned, its capacity and the application of the measures of the health protocol of prevention against the pandemic of COVID-19, he said.

The opening of these structures now concerns more than 2,000 mosques in addition to the 4,000 mosques affected by the August decision to perform daily prayers, except Friday prayer, Youcef Belmehdi said.

Regarding the opening of mosques for Friday prayers, the minister noted that the (opening) decision “is not late,” calling on citizens to take all precautions and be more vigilant in strictly applying the health protocol.

During his visit, the minister inaugurated the ‘El Qods’ mosque in the ‘Salamandre’ district and the Koranic school of the ‘Qobaa’ mosque in hai (district) ‘Djebli Mohamed’ in the chief town of the wilaya.

Youcef Belmehdi also presided over the opening of the 22nd edition of the National Quran Week, before paying posthumous homage to recently deceased shouyoukh and Ulemas including Sheikh Kaboura Mohamed, Sheikh Djillali Belmehdi, Sheikh Miloud Brahmi and Sheih Bouheni Marouani.

For more information (in French) please visit the following link.


21 October, 2020: The Ministry of National Education announced Tuesday in a circular on “enrolment in pre-school classes for the school year 2020/2021”, that the date for the start of the school year was set for November 15.

The start of the pre-school school year is set for 15 November 2020, according to the circular, which recalls the imperative, as is the case for other levels of education, “to respect the measures of the health protocol adopted for the start of the 2020/2021 school year”.

This document, a copy of which has reached the APS, sets out the terms and conditions for the enrolment of children concerned by pre-school education as well as the conditions for opening these classes in primary schools in the exceptional health situation of COVID-19. Therefore, children born between 1 January and 31 December 2015 are concerned by pre-school enrolment, in order of date of birth and within the limit of available teaching places.

The opening of pre-school classes is subject to “the availability of premises and teachers”, the circular states, specifying that “the creation of this type of class must under no circumstances be the subject of a request for an additional budget item or motivate a change in the operation of the primary school to a double shift”.

As regards the organisation of schooling, the supervisory authority has limited the number of pupils to a maximum of “20 children per group, and has recommended that the group be divided into two sub-groups, in the case of large numbers, opting for alternating every two days”.

For more information (in French) please consult the following link.