An exceptional story... An Algerian school for one student

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A scene is taking place in the upper part of the Akhrat area, affiliated with the municipality of Al-Ansar in the state of Jijel, east of Algiers. At first glance, it seems closer to an exceptional story than to an ordinary school day. A school opens its doors every morning, while only one student attends it.

She is Nihad Busabi, a fifth-year primary school student at Martyr Bousbai Mubarak School, which bears the name of her late grandfather. While the classrooms were empty of her colleagues, Nihad continued to go to school as usual, and follow her lessons in conditions that she says are comfortable and help her continue her education.

School wasn't always this quiet. According to the director of education for the state of Jijel, the institution previously included 12 students, but they successively moved to the middle education stage, so Nihad found herself the only student remaining in the school during the current school season.

Nihad was previously studying with her sister, before the latter moved to middle school. As for Nihad, who reached the fifth and final year of primary school, the educational authorities chose to continue her academic year in her school instead of transferring her to another institution.

Thus, the school that was receiving a group of children became an educational institution practically dedicated to one student, in a rare image that caught the attention of Algerians and was circulated by local and Arab media.

Despite the absence of her classmates, Nihad says that she is following her program normally, studying mathematics, Arabic, French, English, and physical education, and also benefits from a portable hot meal. The student says, with remarkable simplicity, that she does not find a problem with her academic situation: “What concerns me and him... we read all the subjects.”

It does not seem that the absence of students in the school has dampened her enthusiasm; Fenhad has a clear dream for the future: to become a middle school mathematics teacher.

The story does not stop when the school door opens in front of one student. According to local reports, an educational and administrative staff continues to work at the institution, including a director, two professors, a cook, and a guard, while local publications also spoke about providing transportation for the student.

Thus, the quiet school in the Jijel Mountains became one of the most strange images at the beginning of the school season: many desks, entire classrooms, and a large school yard, but only one girl bore the status of “the institution’s student.”

The story that began with one student reached the future of the school. Behind the striking human image there is a larger issue related to the future of the school itself.

Nihad's father, Hamza Bousabi, raised another issue after his youngest son reached school age. According to local reports, he was unable to enroll his son in the same school, which led him to question the future of the institution, especially with the decline in the number of children in the region.

Reports indicate that the family fears that the decline in the number of students will lead to the closure of the school, while the younger child faces the prospect of enrolling in another institution further away from home. This point transformed the story from just a funny story about a “one-student school” into a discussion about schooling in rural and remote areas, and the future of institutions whose population is declining.

According to what local media reported from the Director of Education, the school will continue to receive Nihad during the current school year, and the future of the institution will be discussed after the end of the season, in the absence of a sufficient number of students. This issue comes in a state that already faces challenges related to population distribution and schooling in remote areas.

So, while the picture may seem simple: one child sitting in an entire school, the story carries at its background a much larger question: What happens to schools when their students leave one by one?

In Akhrat, Jijel, the school did not close its doors to Nihad. She sat alone in her seat, while the blackboard remained in front of her, the teachers were around her, and the dream she had was larger than the number of her colleagues in the department.