Nouakchott, Mauritania – Moulay Ould Rais waited to pick up his son and daughter from a government-owned school in Nouakchott’s Sahraoui neighbourhood.

As the closing bell rang at the Abdellahi Ould Nouegued Basic School, streams of pre-teen children rushed out into the hallways with their bulky schoolbags and lunch boxes.

It was a Friday, so there was joy in the air as the weekend neared.

Retired engineer Rais, 67, was feeling optimistic for other reasons – he had hope in new changes to the school system.

He backs the government’s decision to phase out private schools in favour of state-run institutions, pitched as a bid to standardise education quality.

Despite protests by some parents and teachers, Rais believes “everyone will benefit” from the new system.

Rais, who heads the school’s parents’ association, told Al Jazeera that he remembers a time when there were only public schools.

He was able to become a civil engineer who worked across West Africa. But when private schools emerged, impoverished families suffered, he said.

“It will bring back a generation like the first generation, where people were united and at peace with one another,” Rais added, as schoolchildren gathered around him, playfully tugging at his white boubou.

Education in Mauritania often ranks poorly due to low investment in infrastructure and teachers.

The pivot to state-run schools is part of the current administration’s attempt at education reform. And it wants quick results.

But many children, especially in low-income rural areas, are out of school in a country where religious learning was historically prioritised. At least 30 percent of school-aged children are not enrolled in school at all, according to UNESCO.

Of those who enrol, many remain barely literate. About 95 percent of Mauritanian children cannot read or understand texts their peers in other countries would not have a problem with by age 10, the United Nations education agency noted.

Officials, who are now racing to revamp the sector by 2030, want to standardise the system while making education affordable. According to the World Bank, 58 percent of the population is too impoverished to access quality education or healthcare.

However, critics warn that rushing policies will be detrimental.

A knock for private schools

When proposed education reforms were signed off on in 2022, they were welcomed by most of the country’s 4.5 million people.

The policy ushered in free basic education for all children. Previously, only primary-aged children received free education. The new measure includes middle school.

Education is now mandatory, too. All children must also enrol in primary school by the age of six.

Some children can learn in three local languages alongside Arabic – Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof – belonging to the minority Afro-Mauritanian population, which has long decried marginalisation.

But private school owners, teachers, and parents are worried that phasing out their schools will lead to job losses, lower education quality, and add pressure on government resources.

“The changes are too rushed and too sudden,” Meyey Ould Abdel-Wedoud, a teacher at a private school on the outskirts of Nouakchott, told Al Jazeera.

By law, his school must stop admitting new students after 2027.

The government has not announced detailed plans regarding the fate of teachers set to lose their jobs.

“We are going to face limited incomes and high prices,” Abdel-Wedoud said.

He also leads a national teachers’ union.

Already, some primary school classes in his school have been shuttered as part of the plan. As a result, the school is losing approximately 2 million ouguiyas ($5,000) monthly, he said, adding that similar scenarios are playing out across the country.

Many private schools will likely have to shut down in a few years, Abdel-Wedoud warned.

Only private high schools – or lycees, where students complete three more years of senior secondary education – are exempt from the policy.

Mauritania has long focused on the public school system, but authorities opened up the education sector to private schools in 1981 as the numbers of government-funded institutions failed to meet the needs of some pupils. As more private institutions opened up, however, authorities struggled to regulate them.

It is unclear how many private schools there are in Mauritania but they are credited with helping to boost attendance. Between 2002 and 2012, for example, private primary schools enrolments rose from 12,391 to 71,104 students, according to the World Bank.  By 2010, they accounted for 11 percent of all primary and 26 percent of secondary enrolments.

Although perceived as producing brighter students, critics say private school curricula are not aligned with the government’s. They typically prioritise the French system, for example, as Mauritania was a former colony. Besides, they argue the quality of teaching is generally low and that some teachers also commonly work in both private and public schools at the same time, limiting the attention they can provide to children in each setting.

Government officials have argued that the poorest sectors are excluded from private schooling.

Some schools, like Abdel-Wedoud’s, target low-income earners and charge about $100 per child each term, but others cost about $1,000 or more.

Abdel-Wedoud said alternatives could have been explored.

Private school owners proposed a quota system where children from impoverished backgrounds could study for free, but there was never a response, he said.

Fighting a troubled legacy

Mohamed El Saleck Ould Taleb, a public school coordinator at the Ministry of National Education, defended the government’s thinking.

He told Al Jazeera that the reforms are designed to tackle systemic inequalities.

“Everyone will wear the same uniform, sit at the same table, from the south to the north, and education will be the same thing,” he said.

Located where the Arab world meets sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritania has historically been racially segregated, with the Arab-Berber population having political and economic dominance over the majority Haratin population, an Arabised Black group that was historically enslaved. Slavery was abolished in 1981 and criminalised in 2007.

Afro-Mauritanians, who make up about 30 percent of the population and do not speak Arabic, have long complained of discrimination based on their languages and their colour. Geographical divides overlap with social fractures, too.

Afro-Mauritanians are predominantly from the impoverished south of the country, where climate shocks resulting in erratic rainfall and drought have affected farming. Arabic-speaking groups are mainly in the richer coastal regions, which depend on fishing, or the northern regions rich in iron and gold.

Children from the most marginalised groups attend free public schools.

Taleb said the government wanted to level the playing field.

He downplayed the potential for mass job losses among private school employees, saying the number of those affected was not significant compared with the scale of the success expected years down the line.

“Private school teachers will also have the opportunity to apply to public schools, because we are expecting many kids to come,” he added.

A more urgent challenge is getting enough children in rural areas enrolled, he said. The vast but sparsely populated country is peppered with tiny settlements, making it harder for people in the countryside to reach their closest public school.

But Abdel-Wedoud, the private school teacher, said the issue is being politicised. The legacies of division in Mauritania are being overblown, he argued, adding that different ethnic groups have interacted freely for decades.

“It is as if the state is asking for something that already exists,” he said. “It is asking for Mauritanian children to study in one school, while in reality, Mauritanian children are already studying together in private education, across all backgrounds, languages, and social classes.”

Back at the public school in western Nouakchott, Rais finally saw his son, Ely Cheikh, in the chaos of pick-up time.

“We are having this problem of discrimination, of racism, and all of that,” he said. But with the new law, “there will be unity”.

Note: Ely Cheikh Mohamed Vadel contributed to this report