Abdellatif Abid , the new minister of Education

Abdellatif Abid was born on October 1, 1947 in Korba, Nabel. He is one of the founding members of Ettakatol’s political bureau.

Abid served as the minister of education in the interim government of former Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali. He was nevertheless replaced by Salem Abyadh in the cabinet reshuffle that was announced by Prime Minister-Designate Ali Laraayedh on March 8, 2013.

Abid was, until recently, a retired professor from the Higher Institute of Languages at the University of Carthage, specializing in Arabic Linguistics. His field covered Arabic terminology, lexicology, and translation of scientific and technical terms.

He has also served as the President of the Federation of Arab Translators and as a member of the Board of Trustees. Additionally, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Arab Organization for Translation in Beirut, Lebanon, and as a corresponding member of the Union of the Arabic Language - a group of Arabic scholars based in Damascus and Cairo.

Abid studied in Korba at the Secondary Institute of Ibn Charaf Tunis, where he met many young people from all over Africa.  He  studied in the Department of Arabic at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences (known as 9 Avril). He prepared research for the novel Deglah Fi Arajinha, by the Tunisian novelist Bachir Khraye. Abid received a PhD on the terminology of agricultural vocabulary used in the area of Korba.

He taught at the institutes of Grombalia, Jendouba, and Korba Montfleury. He has been teaching at the Higher Institute of Languages since 1978.

He is currently an expert at the Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organaization (ISESCO)  regarding the diffusion of Arab-Islamic culture abroad.

Active politically since his youth, he belonged to the Movement of Social Democrats during the era when its founding leader, Ahmed Mestiri, was in charge of the party. He subsequently took responsibility for writing the plan for the general movement in the state of Nabuel from 1981 to 1990. He was elected as a member of the Political Bureau of the movement until the his resignation, reportedly in May 1992, due to the Movement’s deviation from democratic principles.

Shortly thereafter he became involved with a group of democratic activists, headed by Dr. Mustapha Ben Jaafar, in establishing the bloc of democratic freedoms. In April 1994 he became a founding member of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights and the Chief of Korba. He is also a founding member of the National Council for Liberties.

He has been an advocate for Maghrebian unity, the unity of the Arab nations, and the integration of African and Islamic world. He has also been an activist for the fair partnership between labor and capital as well as the development of national wealth to achieve regional development.

He is married and has no children.