Tunisian Bac

Overview

The Baccalauréat, usually called the "bac," is Tunisia's national secondary-school-leaving exam and the main gateway to higher education. It is run by the Ministry of Education (Ministère de l'Éducation) and sat at the end of the 4th year of secondary school (terminale), after a cycle in which students choose a specialisation section. For the 2026 main session, 162,435 candidates sat the exam nationally, across nearly 6,000 exam centres.

Who can apply

Two groups of candidates sit the bac each year:

• School-enrolled candidates (candidats scolarisés): registered by their own secondary school as part of normal 4th-year enrolment. For 2026, these made up the large majority of candidates (public-school students alone were about 83% of all registrations).

• Free candidates (candidats libres): register themselves directly, including people retaking the exam or studying outside the regular school system. Free candidates made up about 5% of all 2026 registrations.

Exam pattern

After a common first year, students choose one of seven specialisation sections, which sets the subjects and coefficients at the exam:

Each subject carries a coefficient that depends on the section. For example, the official coefficients for the Mathématiques section give Mathematics a coefficient of 4 and Physics a coefficient of 4, against a coefficient of 1 for SVT; the Sciences Expérimentales section instead gives SVT and Physics a coefficient of 4 each and Mathematics only 3. Core subjects common to most sections (French, English, Philosophy, Arabic, Computing, Sport) typically carry a coefficient of 1 each in a given section.

Written exams are held over several days in June. Some subjects, including music, technology, computing and the sport specialty, also include a practical or oral component scheduled separately from the main written papers.

Marking and results

Each subject is marked out of 20, and the overall result is a weighted average (using each subject's coefficient for the student's section) also out of 20. The pass mark is 10/20 on this weighted average.

Candidates whose main-session average falls between 9/20 and 10/20 qualify for the session de contrôle, a retake session a few weeks later in which they resit two subjects of their choice; the better of the two sessions' marks is kept for each resat subject.

For the 2026 main session, the national pass rate was 35.67% (down from 37.08% in 2025), with pass rates varying widely by section: 79.41% in Mathématiques, 70.32% in Sport, 44.02% in Sciences de l'Informatique, 42.27% in Sciences Expérimentales, 37.62% in Sciences Techniques, 26.22% in Économie et Gestion and 24.24% in Lettres. After the session de contrôle, the combined pass rate across both sessions for 2026 reached 50.72%.

Important dates

For the 2026 session:

• Online registration: 22 October 2025 to 20 November 2025, on bac.education.tn.

• Deadline to submit the signed application file to the school (scolarisés) or regional education office (libres): 26 November 2025.

• Main-session written exams: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 June 2026.

• Main-session results: 23 June 2026.

• Session de contrôle written exams: 29–30 June and 1–2 July 2026.

• Session de contrôle results: 12 July 2026.

How to apply

School-enrolled candidates register online on bac.education.tn, then download and sign the application form, attach the required documents, and submit the file to their school's administration by the published deadline.

Free candidates follow the same online registration, then submit their complete file either in person to the competent regional education office (délégation régionale de l'Éducation) or by registered mail, also by the published deadline. Registration fees are paid electronically through a 22-dinar e-stamp (timbre fiscal électronique).

After the exam

A bac pass is the entry qualification for Tunisian higher education. All university-orientation steps run exclusively through the Ministry of Higher Education's platform, orientation.tn: successful candidates use their bac number and a password (sent by SMS to the phone number declared at registration) to log in, rank their preferred degree programmes, and consult their final orientation once it is published. Placement into a programme depends on the candidate's weighted average for that programme (which gives extra weight to coefficients relevant to it), measured against each programme's minimum entry average, together with the candidate's ranked preferences and the number of seats available.

Preparation tips

• Focus revision on your section's highest-coefficient subjects first (for example Mathematics and Physics in the Mathématiques section), since they weigh most heavily on your final average.

• Do not neglect practical or oral components in subjects that carry one (music, technology, computing, the sport specialty), as these are scheduled and marked separately from the written papers.

• If your main-session average lands between 9/20 and 10/20, prepare in advance to choose the two subjects most likely to raise your average for the session de contrôle, since only the better of the two sessions counts per subject.

• Register within the published window on bac.education.tn, and keep a copy of your submitted file and e-stamp payment, since late registration is not accepted.