education system in egypt essay

Shaking up Egypt’s public education system

Jaime saavedra.

We are living in a global learning crisis. More than half of children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple text by age ten. A few weeks ago during the World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meetings, we launched a new Learning Poverty target , meant to draw attention to this critical development challenge. To support country efforts in boosting literacy levels, we also released a Literacy Policy package in a new report,  Ending Learning Poverty: What Will It Take? , outlining interventions that have proven successful in several countries and subnational entities, and have the potential to be replicated  or be an input in the design of interventions in other contexts.

Successful countries, we found, invest in shifting the mindsets of all actors of the education system to focus relentlessly on learning. Improvements in the learning process require many interventions at the classroom and school level. And they are urgent because millions of children are attending schools today and children deserve a better experience today. But these interventions can only have an impact at scale if they are part of a systemic change where all relevant actors focus on the child’s experience.

One example of a systemic shift is in the education reform program is currently being implemented in Egypt. Such ambitious reforms efforts are not abundant, as pointed out by Tarek Shawki, an engineering and applied mathematics university professor and academic, turned policymaker, and now Egypt’s Minister of Education and Technical Education. He discussed the reform program, now one year into implementation, with World Bank staff while he was in Washington, D.C..  

The reform introduces new tools and teaching techniques across the system from kindergarten to primary and secondary school. It introduces changes to student assessments and examinations; enhances the capacity of teachers, education leaders, and supervisors; introduces the rigorous use of technology in teaching and learning; and develops the framework of a new curriculum. But that is just a boring description of the tasks at hand.

What really matters is the spirit of the reform which is about steering the education system towards learning. “The classic education system of Egypt had expired,” said Dr Tarek, and the reform program was needed, “to bring education back into the classroom.”

“It was time to try (finally) something else,” he added.

Wasn’t the educational system about learning? No. It wasn’t. Egypt’s classical education system had been geared towards producing graduates suitable for the labor market of the past, with weight placed solely upon getting a credential that could assure a job, usually in the public sector. Skills, competencies and learning were not on the minds of students, teachers, parents or school administrators. 

“We want students to learn for life, not for an exam,” Dr Shawki said. The World Bank’s US$500 million Supporting Egypt Education Reform Project is helping Egypt in this ambitious reform process.

The new Education 2.0 framework uses a competency-based curriculum, focused on the experience of learners, and is being rolled out while the existing curriculum is reformed. The new curriculum is supported by IT integration programs covering digital content, with hand-held devices for students, in-class coaching, and computer-based tests.   

Education 2.0 is being rolled out to grade 2 in the current school year 2019/2020, offering early grades new curriculum as well as new teacher training and teachers' guides. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) was launched in 2016 as the largest digital library and online knowledge hub sourced from many digital publishers. The system reforms aim to make the digital learning resources available for all students and teachers in KG1-2 and grades 1-12 in all core subjects.

To create meaningful change in the entire system, a new computer-based testing scheme was rolled out nationwide to shift students’ focus away from memorization. The new secondary school testing system is being administered to grade 11 in 2019/2020. ‘’We want to test students against what they understand, not what they have memorized,” Dr Shawki said. The new digital content system enables students to take the exam wherever they are, with access to all materials, representing a major departure from the previous system where answers were memorized, and questions were leaked in advance.

As teachers are critical to the success of the reforms, training and re-licensing of teachers are underway. These reforms aim to update teaching strategies and change mindsets, so teachers become coaches rather than just instructors. 

Egypt’s system is large and complex, serving a population of 22 million students with 1.3 million teachers in 50,000 schools –, and the reform program has had its fair share of challenges. One of these challenges has been to convince parents, students and teachers that education is no longer about taking exams for certificates. The development of new curricula for early grades, new textbooks and teachers guides, and designing the new secondary education assessment system has proven challenging -as could be expected. The system also faces challenges in administering the computer-based test to half a million students in 2500 secondary schools at the same time. These implementation challenges, while anticipated, need to be addressed quickly to ensure the reform program succeeds. In Dr Shawki’s view, all stakeholders need to be onboard for this to happen.  

The reform to the whole system will take a few years to roll out, particularly teachers’ career and professional development, but the staggered approach allows for many students to start seeing changes in their education experience very quickly. We are excited to be a part of this journey that has the potential to have a lasting positive impact on the lives of millions of young Egyptians in the years to come. 

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Egypt’s Education System: Parents and Students Emerge as a New Force for Reform

Subscribe to global connection, amina fahmy , af amina fahmy djavad salehi isfahani , and djavad salehi isfahani professor of economics - virginia tech navtej dhillon nd navtej dhillon former brookings expert.

October 1, 2008

In Egypt, a number of teachers and parents recently received sentences between three and 15 years in prison for leaking and buying national examinations. Meanwhile, a host of Egyptian students organized a series of online protests against the government’s decision to start school during the last ten days of the holy month of Ramadan. As one young protester explained, “it would make no difference” whether the government changed its decision or not, because many students regularly miss school anyway. These two events capture the growing desperation and dismay of parents, students and teachers with the education system in Egypt.

The Egyptian government spends about 3.5% of GDP on education, which is low by international standards. Underfunding is one culprit behind underdeveloped education infrastructure. Curriculum reform and more motivated teachers are also essential. However, as a forthcoming paper by Djavad Salehi-Isfahani and Navtej Dhillon argues, improving the education system requires not only more resources but also demands reforming the existing institutions that provide the incentives and signals to guide the choices of parents and students in what to learn. Two main institutional features common to most countries in the Middle East call for particular attention in this regard: the dominant role of the public sector in providing and rewarding education (through employment), and the heavy reliance on testing in grade promotion and university admissions, which encourage rote learning.

In Egypt and throughout the region, parents and children continue to invest in skills that help secure government and civil service jobs, as they are traditionally associated with better pay and benefits. Although the post-revolution public sector guarantee for university graduates was rescinded in 1989, government jobs have maintained their appeal. As a result, “good” jobs are perceived by parents and students alike as requiring a degree or a diploma rather than investment in a broad set of skills. At the same time, the private sector, which is increasingly growing and providing more job opportunities for youth, has a limited role in driving skill formation. The value and strength of signals sent by private employers is undermined by heavy regulation; private employers behave like public employers offering job security and giving greater weight to ex ante signals of productivity such as degrees.

These incentives and signals from the labor market shape the educational experiences of young people. Schooling is thereby driven exclusively by the need to score high grades in national examinations, which determine access to university places. These exams do not only engender a culture of fear and frustration, but also reinforce rote memorization and stifle critical thinking and creative expression. It is based on the results of these life-determining national exams that students are allotted enrollment in public universities.

Throughout the region, an estimated seventy percent of those entering universities concentrate in the social sciences and humanities, which require lower scores and are the tracks historically taken for securing public sector employment. Young people consequently graduate with university degrees but few skills. The ensuing skills-mismatch leads to growing rates of un- and under-employment. Today in Egypt, university graduates represent the group with the highest unemployment rates, closely followed by those with secondary degrees.

Desperate, parents naturally respond to the incentives set in the labor market by increasing their investments in test-taking preparation, which in turn only reinforces these negative outcomes. In Egypt, parents invest their hard earned money in private tutoring, which adds up to millions of dollars annually. However the content of these lessons is no better than that in the classroom. Private tutoring merely hammers in the same narrow curriculum, preparing students to excel in the national exams.

The wide gap that these distorted incentives and signals have created between private investments and social returns continues to grow as long as institutions remain unreformed. If the incentives and signals that young people and their families receive were in line with larger development goals, private and public investments would be rechanneled towards skills development.

These institutional reforms can be achieved by improving university admission policies and public and civil sector hiring practices. The important role of university education in shaping the educational experience in Egypt and most Middle Eastern countries suggests using university admission policies to change learning incentives in grades K-12. How universities select students influences how and what students learn at lower levels of education. Thus, university admission policies should be reformed to foster the acquisition of skills and experience that are in line with larger development goals. For example, adding more components to assess writing and other critical skills in these tests and seeking recommendation letters from teachers will positively impact students’ learning strategies prior to applying to university. In addition, public universities can give weight to past work experience and volunteerism to promote hands-on learning at younger ages.

In the labor market, public and civil sector hiring practices should be reformed to leverage greater change in education as well. Qualification for civil and public employment should be linked to a range of skills and prior job experience rather than just diplomas. Furthermore, requiring prior job experience in the private sector, community service, or in volunteer services would reduce queuing for public sector jobs and encourage youth to undertake greater work experience while looking (or just waiting) for the permanent job to arrive.

The recent events in Egypt expose the growing discontent with the education system and underline the imperative of reform. These developments also show that good youth policy and reforms can create their own constituency—in this case parents, teachers and students who can be enlisted as new allies in education reform.

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School educational policy in Egypt: societal assessment perspective

Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences

ISSN : 2632-279X

Article publication date: 11 June 2019

Educational policy is crucial to society. Its process is related to political, economic and cultural variables. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research in the field of applied social sciences, about how educational policies help to achieve societal objectives and welfare. This study aims to assess the concept and features of school education in Egypt during 1990-2017.

Design/methodology/approach

Secondary data were collected using governmental reports and educational institutional reports and assessed through specialized focus groups.

Results showed that, despite the multiplicity of strategies to reform the educational system, achievements and outcomes of educational processes are modest, and the developmental status of Egypt is lower than that of other countries. Studying educational outcomes indicated that school-education suffered from the predominance of quantity over quality and a serious inability to meet requirements of new knowledge era.

Originality/value

A novel future-oriented proposal for context, ethos and reforming aspects of educational policy will be suggested.

• Educational development
• Educational policy
• School-education
• Educational strategy

Zaki Ewiss, M.A. , Abdelgawad, F. and Elgendy, A. (2019), "School educational policy in Egypt: societal assessment perspective", Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences , Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 55-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHASS-05-2019-004

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, M.A. Zaki Ewiss, Fatma Abdelgawad and Azza Elgendy.

Published in Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

A wealth of information about educational strategies in both developed and developing countries is available ( Apple, 2003 ; Bell and Stevenson, 2006 ; Haddad and Demsky, 1995 ). According to Haddad and Demsky (1995) , the formulation of educational policy involves seven steps as follows: analysis of the current situation, policy options generation, evaluation, decision-making, implementation, assessment and subsequent policy cycles. They stated that, policy is “an explicit or implicit single decision or group of decisions which may set out directives for guiding future decisions, initiate or retard action, or guide implementation of previous decisions.” The concept of educational policy is to support the educational system and determine its stages, e.g. systems, objectives and means of achieving these goals, to become a reference framework to guide when addressing the issues of education and its problems. It is the organized effort made to achieve certain goals, which reflect the basic choices of the society plans. This policy should be strengthened and committed by the government ( Apple, 2003 ). One of the key purposes of education is social transformation, by reducing social inequalities. Malik, 2012 , stated that education involves not only individuals but also the society, selecting, classifying, distributing, transmitting and evaluating the educational knowledge, reflecting both the distribution of power and the principle of social contract. In a country with alarming inequities of income and opportunities, reducing the social exclusion needs to be one of the principle objectives of the policy ( Malik, 2012 ). Educational system is supposed to ensure the right of an individual to grow in income, based on his/her excellence in education and training. To support the policy success, it is important to focus on the implementation more than the design, using a homogenous framework ( OECD, 2015 ). Each country has its unique political, economic and institutional structures and so the educational policy will differ according to the social, cultural and economic contexts ( OECD, 2010 ). It is important to specify educational policy according to the environment of each country (OECD, 2015). Once the educational policy is determined, the misjudgment of the easiness of implementation is considered as the common error in policy planning ( Haddad and Demsky, 1995 ).

The present work forms a part of a big project aiming to introduce a proposal for education enhancement in Egypt, using modeling approach. First, for “assessment of the Egyptian’s educational policy,” there are three subsections assessing the educational policy during different periods. The outlines of the educational strategy of 2014-2030 and statistics of 2017 will be presented and analyzed. In the discussion section, vulnerability factors that negatively impact the development of education in Egypt are assessed. Finally, a novel future-oriented proposal for the context, ethos and reforming aspects of educational policy is presented.

Assessment of the Egyptian’s educational policy

During the years 1990-2000.

Formal groups : Comprises persons or systems of a legitimate nature by their position in the official organization of the society, such as the President, the Parliament, the People’s Assembly, as well as the Shura Council, the Ministry of Education and the specialized councils.

Informal groups : Comprises various interest groups, political parties and public opinion.

External power : It is one of the most important new-world economies and it has various implications on the educational policy’s objectives.

Although, the educational policy was defined in the above-mentioned declaration, it did not fulfill the expected outcomes. During this period, the Ministry of Education developed a comprehensive plan for the advancement of education in Egypt, integrated in response to the growing needs and cost. Education of children in different stages was below the required level for them as individuals. Egypt as a pioneer country in the region stated that there is an educational crisis. This crisis was reflected in schools, among teachers, students and in the curricula. Studying educational outcomes indicated that school education was suffering from the predominance of quantity over quality and from serious inabilities to meet the requirements of a new knowledge era ( NCERD, 2001 ). A new vision for the development of education was declared by the Minister of Education at that time (Dr Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin). It focused on the achievements and the measures taken to implement its objectives. The most important educational objectives were determined as follows: preparing a good citizen, developing the productive capacity of the Egyptian people, deepening loyalty and belonging to the homeland and formation of a generation able to excel in scientific research. Education is a national security issue; it has military, economic and political pivots.

Investment in education

Investment in education is a public issue and that education must be adequately funded.

First source provided by the government in the public budget, and the second is the initiative of the private education institutions.

Investment in education is not a humanitarian or charitable issue.

The Egyptian family is not burdened with additional burdens.

Defining a policy of informed education in a democratic framework.

It follows the scientific method, takes legal channels or adopts democratic methods at every stage, expresses honestly the real requirements of the Egyptian people and bravely confronts the global challenges facing the society.

In a democracy framework, everyone must be given the opportunity to express their views and participate in decision-making for education ( NCERD, 2001 ).

Educational crises

School buildings : More than half of the existing schools do not comply with any standards for maintenance of human dignity.

Teachers : Egyptian teachers suffer from low salaries, inadequate medical insurance and lack of training and continuous education to upgrade their professional capabilities.

Curricula : Generally speaking, curricula design, contents and tools are outdated. No clear philosophy of improvement by additions or omissions of parts of these contents where applied during the given period of study.

rationalization of cost-free education;

full cost-free education in basic education as the mainstay of national security;

cost-free for the committed student who makes the efforts required, achieves continuous success, and thus the government does not sponsor students’ failure;

students who joined private education in basic education are not acceptable to receive cost-free education at the secondary or university level;

successful students obtain cost-free reward at all educational levels;

the contribution of capable and business people to finance education; and

graduate studies should be with expenses.

Introducing technology and modern methods of education

Achieving the homogeneity between different education types : It should be allowed to move easily from one type of education to another; to facilitate graduate students of technical education to join higher institutes and universities; and to facilitate every student who dropped out from education to have another chance.

Return of school feeding : 52 per cent of students in basic education suffer from anemia and 20 per cent of these have vitamin deficiencies. According to the well known correlation between malnutrition and difficulties in learning capabilities the above mentioned figures are negatively reflected on educational outcomes of Egyptian generations.

Care of talented students : The talent students should be taken care of. It is worth noting that the Egyptian government dedicated a day to celebrate talented students and to honor their successful scientific and educational innovations.

Encouraging the role of the private sector in the field of education : At all levels of education, establishment of private schools and institutions must be awarded license.

Comprehensive educational plan was developed, using the new education technology through two parallel tracks; horizontal track involved deploying the necessary equipment, multimedia, advanced science laboratories and reception halls to broadcast educational channels in all educational stages and the vertical track involved upgrading the equipment available in schools (NCERD, 2001).

Issued Law No. 8 for the year 1991 on the interest of literacy and adult education, and the General Authority for Literacy was established in 1992.

Importance of curriculum development to meet contemporary variables, future challenges, globalization, technological development and information flow.

Establishment of community schools to accommodate girls who were not covered by the educational plan and still in the age of receiving compulsory education and those who dropped out of primary schools, as a second chance for joining the education system.

Basic Education Improvement Project, which was funded by the Ministry of Education with the participation of the World Bank and the European Union to gradually increase the level of education to achieve full absorption.

Cooperation agreement to conduct joint research between Egyptian and French researchers working in research centers to improve teaching methods in Egypt.

Cooperation with USAID in the framework of the Girls’ Education Strategy, which aims to build small schools to girls deprived of education in remote areas.

Cooperation with UNICEF, in which community schools are known to provide distinct educational opportunities for girls ( NCERD, 2001 ).

Cooperation with the German side for implementation of the Mubarak–Cole project.

The establishment of the Center for Technological Development in 1997, affiliated to the Ministry of Education ( NCERD, 2001 ).

Establishment of national network of distance education (video conferencing) linked to all governorates of the Republic to train teachers and sending teachers to external missions to improve their educational skills.

During the years 2000-2010, the educational policy was affected by the emergence of challenges that resulted from scientific and technological revolution and globalization.

Knowledge-based economy

By the end of the twentieth century, the world community entered a new society, named the knowledge society. Thus, the role of information technology as the mainstay of modern economies was growing. It became clear that the main element in advancing the process of economic development and social construction is knowledge, where development is currently based on the production, circulation and use of knowledge. The response to knowledge-based economy requires that the Egyptian educational system be a source of high levels of skills by providing high level of information and communications technology (ICT)-based education and training systems ( NCERD for MOE, 2008 ).

Achieving quality in education

Globalization and application of free market mechanisms resulted in transformation of educational institutions into commercial institutions, so it moved to many market concepts, such as quality, excellence and creativity. The challenge facing the Egyptian society is to have a rank among developed countries. To ensure the quality of education and accreditation, the government approved the establishment of quality assurance authority in education to raise the level of educational services and establish confidence in the educational institution. Thus, the main challenge of educational systems in this decade was not only EFA but also high-quality education.

During the years 2001-2009, rapid spread of electronic systems in education

Continue educational infrastructure efforts by promoting education for girls, rural education and education for people with special needs, as well as literacy, teacher development, curriculum development, school textbooks, child care and child labor.

Making a qualitative leap in education by the development of secondary education, the use of scientific methodology, the strengthening of democracy and international cooperation.

A breakthrough in the era of technology by strengthening infrastructure, channels, educational programs, e-learning, e-government and advanced learning centers.

In 2003/2004, the Ministry’s vision and direction toward the knowledge society focused on several objectives, such as continuous support of EFA infrastructure, attention to those with special needs, attention and care for talented students, optimal investment in early childhood, developing curricula and enriching educational materials, expanding the base of community participation and decentralization, expanding the use of technology and e-learning, building national standards for education and applying the academic accreditation system, literacy, sustainable professional development of workers in the field of education, emphasizing the overall quality of education in a comparative global context and supporting technical education and practical training for students.

In the year 2005/2006, some measures were taken to develop the educational plan. The Strategic Policy and Planning Unit was established at the Ministry. It includes qualified cadres with the support of international expertise. It also proposes the future policies, strategic plans and programs implemented for them ( NCERD for MOE, 2008 ).

In the year 2007, The Professional Academy for Teachers was established; it is one of the bodies assisting the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for the reform of school education in Egypt. The most important documents put forward by the Ministry include the following three basic objectives for the educational process: availability and equal educational opportunities, total quality in education and efficiency of institutional systems.

First group : Provides the main support for educational quality process to reach the expected level of performance.

Second Group : Programs related to reform management systems, the institutionalization program for decentralization, the program of technological development and information systems, the program of evaluation and follow-up and the program of study buildings. It is considered the group supporting both the first group and the third group.

Third group : Is related to the educational stages, such as the kindergarten development program, the basic education reform program, the secondary development program, the special education program for children with special needs and the community education program for girls and boys outside the educational system.

This was the first strategic plan of the ministry to achieve its objectives, after the establishment of the policy and strategic planning unit in the Ministry. The Ministry has begun to transform educational policies into strategic plans based on studying reality, identifying strengths and weaknesses in the educational process, examining challenges and opportunities facing Egyptian education and developing a strategic plan for the development of education. According to the World Bank Report (2013) , it was stated that the number of schools accredited in the academic year 2008/2009 was 187 schools, including 164 government schools and 23 private schools.

During the years 2010-2017

This period witnessed several internal factors that had a great impact on the educational policy plan. The most important variables that influenced education performance are the following.

Internal factors.

The instability in the society was because of the protest vigils and sit-ins, as well as the demands of the class that increased after the revolution.

Revolution of June 30, 2013 and the establishment of a new constitution for the country ( Egyptian Constitution, 2014 ) sets the legislative framework of the country.

The lack of stability of educational policies because of the continuing ministerial changes, where the number of Ministers of Education from 2010 to 2016 was eight.

Legislative frameworks.

In this period, a new Constitution ( Egyptian Constitution, 2014 ) was issued.

An amendment was made to the provisions of Articles 28 and 29 of the Education Law.

In accordance with this amendment, obtaining a certificate of completion of general secondary education at one stage at the end of the third year will be provided.

Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training were established pursuant to the Presidential Decree No. 189 of 2014 to form amended Cabinet by Decree No. 122 of 2015.

Prime Minister Decree No. 623 of 2015 was issued by merging the Ministry of Education and Technical Education ( National Center for Social and Criminological Research, 2018 ).

According to the Human Development Index for 2013, issued by the United Nations and Development Program (2018b), education performance of Egypt was ranked 112th out of 160 countries. The guide also pointed out that the unemployment rate in Egypt among the youth is the highest among the Arab world during 2012.

Despite the success of educational policies, the rate of student’s retention increased before the completion of the three stages of education. The total number of dropouts from the cycle of primary education between 2010/2011 is huge.

In 2012, the illiteracy rate in Egypt reached 28 per cent of the total age group (15-35 years old) with a total of 17 million people and 40 per cent of the population aged 15 years old with a total population of 34 million.

Strategic plan for pre-university education, 2014-2030

Providing equal opportunities for the entire school-age population to enroll or complete secondary and general education with poor areas as a first priority.

Improving the quality of the effectiveness of the educational service by providing a contemporary curriculum, efficient employee technology, educational and non-athletic activities, an effective teacher for each child in each semester, effective leadership in each school and opportunities for professional and internal development of each teacher.

Strengthening the institutional structure, especially in technical schools, and building the capacity of education personnel to decentralize governance.

Establishment of the prestigious (STEM) schools in 2011, as talent and excellence are of value to their being in society.

The number of community education schools has improved. The number of secondary schools has been increased to 4,614, including 82,964 male and 17,312 female out of a total of 100,286 students.

In 1992, establishing the community schools was supported by UNICEF. It reached 417 schools and included 11,458 pupils out of the total of 3,162 schools comprising 61,270 students.

Girl-friendly schools (945) with 23,203 students were established.

Schools for homeless children with 34 schools serving 3,299 students were established.

A total of 46 small schools (through community service organizations) were established ( Education for All 2015 National Review, 2014 ).

There was an increas in the number of students enrolled in secondary education. In 2014, general secondary education accounted for 45 per cent of the total number of students enrolled.

Reducing the number of vocational schools to 269 schools in 2012, which represents 50 per cent of the total schools ( Education for All 2015 National Review, 2014 ).

Educational statistics of year 2017

Referring to the available information published by the ( Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics [CAPMAS], 2017 ), the population of Egypt is estimated as 94,798,827 (approximately 95 million) inhabitants, of whom 11 million are children under the age of admission to nursery school, (50 per cent of them are females). Figure 1 represents the Egyptian population profile according to age group. It showed that 38,879,481 of the total population are children in the school age (5 to 15 years old). This value is 41 per cent of the total population. The percentage of currently enrolled school and university students is 27 per cent of the total population, which is nearly equal to the percentage of the people who never get enrolled (24 per cent) as shown in Figure 2 . It was found that 6.5 million of the children were enrolled and some dropped out of school for various reasons (3 per cent of them for females and the other 3.5 per cent for males). Causes of students’ dropouts are shown in Figure 3 . The highest dropout rate for students of both genders was attributed to the absence of eagerness to learn, as well as an increase in poverty among families. Other social causes are related to customs and traditions of the country where girls’ education is not important. Early marriage was considered as the main reason of female dropout, whereas work was the main reason for male dropout. Other reasons of students’ dropout were parental separation, death of one of the parents, financial constraints and difficulty in reaching schools ( Figure 3 ).

High percentage of unrecorded sector of population (24.7%).

High percentage of illiteracy rate (19.4%).

Significantly low percentage of highly qualified postgraduate candidates (0.4 %).

Discussion and conclusion

Education in the school is still traditional. The curriculum of existing subjects defies any development, and content books may be subjected from time to time to deletion or addition.

Educational system centralized supervision of policies, curricula and public examinations.

The Ministry of Education unified a central vision and a study plan in which the locations and time of teaching are determined.

Education and its policies are the product of the President only. The reports indicate low profile achievements and reduction of the scientific research.

The student enrollment increases in technical and vocational education, resulting in a huge influx of high school graduates, which cannot be absorbed in the labor market.

Lack of university education leads to reduction of enrollment rate in secondary education to 30 per cent, and this criticized the visions adopted by the Ministry.

The rationalization of cost-free education leads to privatization of education and increases the load on families.

Public schools provide low-quality learning and teaching services. They are unacceptably overcrowded, and difficult to be reached by a great number of teachers and students.

It is unreasonable that parents continue carrying their children’s educational expenses.

Many of the principles and orientations established by the educational policy have not been implemented, especially investment in education which is considered a crucial issue.

The Egyptian family has many physical and psychological burdens in public schools.

Lack of teacher training and the cost of private tutoring is a physical and psychological burden.

Parents are forced to accept the reduction of the educational quality. The Ministry has not been able to solve this problem yet.

The present situation of curricula in different levels of pre-university education is not adequate for providing the nation by well educated new generation. These curricula are not structured to offer skills for learning, critical thinking, problem solving and other important outcomes of any good education system.

Disparity between quality of education in private and public schools, educational services provided to urban and rural students, and number of students and classrooms.

Lack of accountability and transparency were found in the managerial aspects of educational institutions and great confusion in decision making processes.

A total of 85 per cent of the schools are lacking educational technology equipment.

There is an increase in the rate of illiteracy.

Revitalize the existing educational system with a view to cater to social, political and spiritual needs of individuals and society.

Create a sense of unity and nationhood and promote the desire to create a welfare state.

Promote national cohesion by respecting each other’s faith and religion and cultural and ethnic diversity.

Promote social and cultural harmony, using the educational process.

Provide and ensure equal educational opportunities to all the citizens of Egypt, and provide minorities with adequate facilities for their cultural and religious development, enabling them to participate effectively in the overall national effort.

Develop a self-reliant individual, who is capable of analytical and original thinking, is a responsible member of the society and a global citizen.

Aiming to encourage building dynamics, creative and responsible personality of the individuals.

Raise individuals committed to democratic and moral values, who are aware of fundamental human rights and are open to new ideas, having a sense of personal responsibility and participation in the productive activities in the society for the common good.

Revive confidence in the public educational system by raising the quality of education provided in government owned institutions, by setting standards for educational inputs, processes and outputs, institutionalizing the process of monitoring and evaluation from the lowest to the highest levels.

Improve service delivery through political commitment, strengthening educational governance and management.

Developing a consistent and integrative view of each educational sector in the frame of a whole and efficient educational policy for the future.

Enable Egypt to fulfill its commitments to achieve the EFA goals.

Widen access to EFA and improve the quality of education, particularly in its dimension of being relevant to the needs of the economy.

Equalize access to education through provision of special facilities for girls and boys alike, as well as for under-privileged/marginalized groups and handicapped children and adults.

Eradicate illiteracy within the shortest possible time through universalizing of quality elementary education coupled with institutionalized adult literacy programs.

Enable an individual to earn honestly his/her livelihood through skills that contribute to the national economy and enable them to make informed choices in life.

Lay emphasis on diversification from general to tertiary education to transform the supply-oriented education system to a demand-oriented one.

Encourage research in higher education institutions that will contribute to accelerated economic growth of the country.

Organize a national process for educational development that will reduce disparities across provinces, support coordination and sharing of experiences.

The educational policy in Egypt is presently inadequate and relies upon the emergency administration framework. It requires a complete reconsideration according to the reset of the national priorities.

A bar chart showing the Egyptian population profile according to age group

A pie chart showing school education enrollment and dropout status

A bar chart showing the possible dropout causes

Showing the Egyptian educational level in the year 2017

Apple , M.W. ( 2003 ), “ The state and the politics of knowledge ”, available at: https://philpapers.org/rec/APPTSA-2 (accessed 24 May 2018 ).

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support through grant No. 94-2016 funded by Cairo University.

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Overview on Egyptian Education System (Education Reform Movements)

Illiteracy is the most difficult problem facing our society it is not just a challenge to education, but is also an enormous stigma; as well as a great waste of the capabilities and potential of the present and future. It is representing an obstacle to social progress and prosperity and we must get rid of it as soon as possible. What ever the cost of defining illiteracy will remain much lower than the country losses from economic, social, and political illiteracy. It may be worth mention that the percentage of illiterate women is higher than the percentage of illiterates and this prompts to direct special attention to female literacy, because of their significant impact on the evolution of society and youth education. Over the 1990s the principle of education for all begins at the global level, this principle was a reflection of the global effort to grow continually under joint recognition since education was considered as a human right, and so is the view today that it is part of human development and that it is necessary for the protection of groups as it is add important benefits for the individual and society. One of the key factors in the progress of nations is the decline in the female illiteracy rate; obvious example for that is Japan. The percentage of female illiteracy in Japan up to 0%, and the Japanese mothers are foundations supporting their children in education and considered as a password of real revival in Japan's education system. Ofcures no comparison can be mad between the Egyptian mother and the Japanese mothers because it will be unfair comparison for the Egyptian women whom have to play mother, employee, maid and wife roles at same time and at the end should be a private teacher for their kids!! Women’s education is considered as “The most single influential investment that can be made in the developing world" Many governments now support women’s education not only to encourage economic growth, but also to promote smaller families, increase modern contraceptive use, and improve child health. It is strongly believed that education of females provides significant benefits for girls and women, their families and the societies in general. Meanwhile, it is an important means for better employment opportunities also it leads to the transfer of females from low paying, low productive activities to activities of higher economic value because Women with more schooling tend to have smaller, healthier families. It is obvious all over the world that more education is linked with smaller family size and has an effect on the ability of women to contribute to the labor market which well led at the end to efficient economic growth. We can also see that The relationship between education and employment for women is indirect, the reason behind this is that other socio economic factors "in addition to education" affect the employment status of women, which have to be taken in consideration while implementing a policy for educational and employment promotion of women. There is no doubt that women are half of Egyptian society and sponsor the other half, Therefore, the governmental and non-governmental organizations doubling the effort to strengthen the role of Egyptian women to increase their participation in economic and social development in Egypt. It is worth to mention that Due to specific gender policies female’s access to certain types of secondary vocational schooling is restricted. Nevertheless, inadequate vocational training for women placed them in a subordinate position in the labor market, especially after privatization and the efforts to release some workers from the public sector and retrain them. By pointing at Females in secondary education, we find that they are concentrated in commercial education and general secondary education at the expense of vocational training. This is a natural consequence of some prevailing norms, as general education is considered the appropriate education for girls. As a result girls are usually restricted to sectors, which are more vulnerable to decrease of economic crisis. Although the education of women is considered to be very important, most Egyptians believe that the Egyptian educational system does not have the capacity to provide anyone, men or women, with an adequate education. While many Egyptians feel positive about the recent efforts to expand adult literacy programs they do not consider the public school system to be efficient. But we have to mention that the strategy of educational reform in Egypt stresses education as one of the basic human rights that exerts benefit to the citizen and the country and Providing access to basic education of all citizens is forms an essential part in the development processes that are designed to achieve National Security, manpower development and facing the challenges and unexpected changes of the future. - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the status of the Egyptian education system in general, highlighting the conditions of females 'education, education problems in general and female education problems in particularly and what steps the government had been taken to improve the statue of education. Due to the limited data and time frame the report depended on existing available documentation as well as date.

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Egyptian women are a very important part of society and they represent almost half of the population. By January 2005, the number of females in Egypt amounted to 34.18 million, accounting for 48.3% out of a total population of 70 million, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. This figure indicates that the participation of women in society assumes an unrivalled power. During the past few years the Egyptian Government has taken great strides to improve the status of women to give them more economic empowerment, particularly in the case of rural women and those who have to support their families alone. In order to lower the female unemployment rate, the state is making huge efforts to raise the competitive ability of women in the labor market within the economic, specialization and globalization programs Statistics show that the participation of women in the labor force has increased significantly from 18% in 1994 and 21.4% in 1999, to 22.6% in 2004. In 2003 female contribution to economic activities reached 13.3% compared to 44.9% of males. Women make up 25% of the total workforce in the government sector with 60% of female employees in the Ministry of Economy, whereas the percentage in the Ministries of Transport and Defense has decreased. 14% of women in the private sector work mainly in tourism, social insurance, education, research fields, health service, planning and finance and 12% in the public sector. 57% of female workers are employed in the agricultural sector in rural areas compared to 34% in urban areas and their intermediate educational level is higher than that of men. About 50.000 employed females are trained annually. By 2003 the number of workers between the ages of 15-64 reached 18.1 million with 58% in rural areas and 42% in urban areas. Working women in the 20-35 age bracket has increased – an indicator of their need to work – whereas the number of working women in the higher age bracket has decreased. Egyptian women are a very important part of society and they represent almost half of the population. By January 2005, the number of females in Egypt amounted to 34.18 million, accounting for 48.3% out of a total population of 70 million, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. This figure indicates that the participation of women in society assumes an unrivalled power. During the past few years the Egyptian Government has taken great strides to improve the status of women to give them more economic empowerment, particularly in the case of rural women and those who have to support their families alone. In order to lower the female unemployment rate, the state is making huge efforts to raise the competitive ability of women in the labor market within the economic, specialization and globalization programs Statistics show that the participation of women in the labor force has increased significantly from 18% in 1994 and 21.4% in 1999, to 22.6% in 2004. In 2003 female contribution to economic activities reached 13.3% compared to 44.9% of males. Women make up 25% of the total workforce in the government sector with 60% of female employees in the Ministry of Economy, whereas the percentage in the Ministries of Transport and Defense has decreased. 14% of women in the private sector work mainly in tourism, social insurance, education, research fields, health service, planning and finance and 12% in the public sector. 57% of female workers are employed in the agricultural sector in rural areas compared to 34% in urban areas and their intermediate educational level is higher than that of men. About 50.000 employed females are trained annually. By 2003 the number of workers between the ages of 15-64 reached 18.1 million with 58% in rural areas and 42% in urban areas. Working women in the 20-35 age bracket has increased – an indicator of their need to work – whereas the number of working women in the higher age bracket has decreased. The biological stages of women, such as pregnancy affect women in their choice of jobs and career performance because as mothers, women may need to take extra leave from work to nurse their babies or deal with family and home commitments. These factors indicate that women’s chances of working or participating in the labor market are affected by domestic, regional and global changes in the work scene. This presentation deals with the current status of women in the Egyptian labor force and discusses the reasons why women choose to work and what obstacles they face in the workplace.

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This research aims to know the educational system of the Arab Republic of Egypt. The research method is literature review or literature study, which contains theories relevant to research problems. The result of the educational system of Egypt that the educational objectives are uphold democracy and the formation of democratic individuals. The authority is centralized, under the ministry of education and ministry of Al-Azhar. Curriculum preparation is carried out with teamwork consisting of experts, professors, consultants, and educational supervisors as well as experienced teachers. The government budgets 17% of the national budget. The educational structures are 1) basic education (ibtida'i), 2) secondary education/preparation (I'dadi), 3) upper secondary education (tsanawi), 4) higher education or university, and 5) elementary school level 6-11 years. The academic year start from June to August.

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Education is an effective instrument for the development of women and nation as a whole. It plays an important role in the women’s life which helps them to play many roles in the family and society. Education helps them to bring constructive changes and uplift the society in to higher strata. Half of the population in the world is comprised of women (Suguna, 2011) if women are highly educated then the nation will be highly developed. But, many factors like poverty, unemployment of the parents, child marriages, discrimination, and inequalities prevents them to access education. Thus, the governmental agencies play an important role to open up opportunities to enroll, retain and promote women in the education sector. Therefore, the present study focuses in identifying the educational schemes that are available for women’s education at the different levels. Also, the objective of the paper is to analyze the different schemes available for women. Secondary data is used and necessary met...

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Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions pp 1–11 Cite as

Higher Education Systems and Institutions, Egypt

• Mohsen Elmahdy Said 3  
• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 06 September 2017

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1 Citations

Higher Education System Development

Demographic, social, and economic contexts.

The population of Egypt exceeds 95 million inhabitants according to the 2017 poll with a near balance between male and female citizens and is the largest among Arab countries and third in the African continent after Nigeria and Ethiopia. Egypt spans over an area of nearly 1 million square kilometers. It has a population density of 96 per square kilometer, 39.7% of the population being urban and nearly 95% living along the narrow banks of the river Nile and the Delta. The country is divided into 28 governorates under seven economic regions. The median age of the population is 24.8 years (Worldometers 2017 ), and, in 2016, the average illiteracy rate for the population aged 10 years and above was 18.6% (24.1% among female and 13.3% among male).

The Egyptian economy is a balanced, knowledge based, competitive, diversified, market economy, characterized by a stable macroeconomic environment. The real gross...

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Constitution of Egypt. 2014. http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=344651 . English version. Accessed 8 June 2017.

Khalifa, H., N. Khabbazbashi, S. Abdelsalam, and M.E. Said. 2014. An investigation into the impact of a workplace English Language Program in Egypt. Research Notes Issue 58: 20–27, published by Cambridge English Language Assessment. http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/182921-research-notes-58-document.pdf . Accessed 8 June 2017.

Khalifa, H., N. Khabbazbashi, S. Abdelsalam, and M.E. Said. 2015. International assessment and local contexts: A case study of an English language initiative in higher education institutes in Egypt. A Paper published at the special issue of “Papers in Language Testing and Assessment” on ‘Assessing Language in Higher Education’, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2015. http://www.altaanz.org/uploads/5/9/0/8/5908292/khalifa_et_al.pdf , http://www.altaanz.org/uploads/5/9/0/8/5908292/frontmatter4_1.pdf . Accessed 8 June 2017.

Ministry of Planning (MOP). 2016. The Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS): Egypt Vision 2030. http://sdsegypt2030.com/category/reports-en/?lang=en . Accessed 8 June 2017.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank (WB). 2010. Higher education in Egypt: Reviews of national policies for education – examiner’s report of higher education in Egypt. http://www.oecd.org/edu/innovation-education/reviewsofnationalpoliciesforeducationhighereducationinegypt2010.htm#3 . Accessed 8 June 2017.

Said, Mohsen Elmahdy. 2003. Higher education in Egypt. In Handbook for higher education in African countries , ed. Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach, 285–300. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, USA. https://www.amazon.com/African-Higher-Education-International-Reference/dp/0253341868 . Accessed 8 June 2017.

Said, Mohsen Elmahdy. 2008. International student circulation in Egypt. In The dynamics of international student circulation in a global context, eds. P. Agarwal, H. de Wit, M.E. Said, M,T. Sehoole, and M, Sirozi. A book co-published by Sense Publishers in the Netherlands (Rotterdam/Taipei) and the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College (CIHE), USA. https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/global-perspectives-on-higher-education/the-dynamics-of-international-student-circulation-in-a-global-context/ . Accessed 8 June 2017.

Said, Mohsen Elmahdy. 2017a. Differentiated postsecondary systems and the role of the university: The case of Egypt. In Responding to massification, differentiation in postsecondary education worldwide , ed. Philip Altbach, Liz Reisberg, and Hans de Wit, 35–43. Hamburg: Korber Foundation. Chapter 3. http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cihe/pdf/Korber%20bk%20PDF.pdf . Accessed 8 June 2017. Also published in a book by Sense Publishers. https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/global-perspectives-on-higher-education/responding-to-massification/ . Accessed 24 July 2017.

Said, Mohsen Elmahdy. 2017b. Cairo University: The Flagship University in Egypt. In Flagship Universities in Africa. Edited by Teferra, Damtew. Springer, Chapter 3, pp 57–89. http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319494029#bibliographic . Accessed 8 June 2017.

Said, Mohsen Elmahdy, and Maha Moustafa Kamel Mourad. 2008. Country case study for Egypt. In Damtew Teferra and Jane Knight, eds. African higher education: The international dimension. A book published by the Association of African Universities (AAU), Ghana. http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/higher-education-in-africa-1 . Accessed 8 June 2017.

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Said, M.E. (2017). Higher Education Systems and Institutions, Egypt. In: Shin, J., Teixeira, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_447-1

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College Minor: Everything You Need to Know

14 fascinating teacher interview questions for principals, tips for success if you have a master’s degree and can’t find a job, 14 ways young teachers can get that professional look, which teacher supplies are worth the splurge, 8 business books every teacher should read, conditional admission: everything you need to know, college majors: everything you need to know, 7 things principals can do to make a teacher observation valuable, 3 easy teacher outfits to tackle parent-teacher conferences, seven things to know about egypt’s new education system.

Once hailed as a center of intellectual excellence, Egypt has lost its glowing reputation. But, they are working to make changes.  In the fall of 2018, Egypt implemented a brand new education system with the goal of reimagining and reinventing how Egyptian kids learn.

The new system’s unofficial motto is “Know, work, live and be…” The new approach to the curriculum has ushered in a shift in Egyptian schooling and academics. But, to understand what these changes mean in modern Egypt, you need a bit of background on the history of education in Egypt.

A Quick History of Egyptian Education

An ancient tradition of religiously based education was the system for many centuries. Then, secular education was introduced in the 1800s.  At that time, a dual education system was implemented where the general population went to religious schools, and civil servants attended government-funded secular schools. This elitist system allowed public school students far better opportunities than their counterparts in Muslim schools.

A more egalitarian system replaced the prejudiced one, but the education system in Egypt was focused on “old school” teaching methods and rote memorization skills.

So, what are the modern educators of Egypt to do?

The New System: Know, Work, Live and Be

Implemented in September 2018, beginning with Kindergarten and primary school , the new system is a complete overhaul with a focus on multidisciplinary learning. Development of problem solving and creativity are priorities over rote memorization and more superficial learning.

The country was formerly an intellectual and educational mecca. As a matter of fact, the nation is home to the world’s oldest university.   In recent history, Egypt has fallen prey to high unemployment and poverty.  The best and brightest often have their sights set for America or other countries where job opportunities are more plentiful. How will the new system change things?

Here are 7 things to know about this new system …

• Fewer exams: Primary school students will move from Kindergarten to fourth grade without being assessed or facing the threat of being “held back.” In 5th grade, exams will commence. The Ministry of Education is also committed to altering the secondary school system. One of the first steps will be abolishing the unified national exam. The schools will, instead, hold 12 examinations throughout the school year.
• Open Books: Historically, Egyptian educators have been criticized for the system’s focus on memorization and “drilling” rather than focusing on critical thinking skills. Open book exams will focus on comprehension rather than memorization.
• Multidisciplinary Curriculum: An integrated, multidisciplinary curriculum helps students make connections between seemingly different subject matter. This also helps avoid repetition of the subject matter.
• Focus on Teachers: Salaries for teachers in Egypt’s public schools are extremely low. This has led to a corrupt practice amongst teachers who intentionally withhold information during lessons and then charge for private tutoring sessions. Therefore, if you want the full lesson, you will have to pay. The new system will work to train and pay teachers better so that they are motivated to work hard for their students every day at school.
• Critical Thinking: Development of problem solving and creativity are priorities over rote memorization and more superficial learning. Students will be given the tools needed in the 21st century for success in life and work.
• Who am I?: The young children’s curriculum will focus on a “Who am I?” theme. Gaining self-awareness and identifying personal strengths early will prepare them for a successful secondary and college education.
• Goals: The goals of the new system are simple: create self-aware, critical thinkers who can grow up to boost the economy and help the country regain its reputation as a center for superior education.

The Egyptian students of today are being set up for success. It is exciting and should be very interesting to watch and see how this new system unfolds and what types of student outcomes it produces.

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The Effects Television Has on Children's Moral Reasoning

In order to conduct the test, they produced a cross-sectional study including 177 parent and child participants, sampled in two different ways. Students were offered the option to either collect information then write a brief paper describing their experience, or to work on an individual research paper. Out of 27 students, 20 chose to assist in collecting information. While the children filled out their surveys, the…

For my understanding, DAIJ is one of process to gather information and collect data from critique artworks, images or photos. It includes description, analysis, interpretation and judgment. Go through this process, writer will be more understand the messages that the author or artist want to convey. In addition, DAIJ is actually more to the writer opinion and it can help writer to improve thinking skill from different angles. In DAIJ, we no need to create anything and it only need a short of time to write DAIJ.…

The author presents his views on investing in literacy education for teachers and students to have equity in the quality for education. He also believes without it students will not be motivated and teachers are going to be uniformed.…

As a beginning, we have four major goals to be achieved and by achieving them we will not only change the future of Egypt to be one of the greatest nations in the world ,but also change the face the whole region. Those four goals are in the fields of education, media, housing, environment, those goals must be achieved in parallel not in series so that we can build a good future, but if we didn’t achieve any of these goals, we will suffer from the bad consequences of ignoring such serious problems and these…

Egypt It Study

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Egypt urged India to develop a strategic partnership between the two countries with a view to boost bilateral trade and investments covering important fields like ICT, energy and industry.…

Research Problem

To conduct this research, we will gather the data from all the local schools in the area and attempt to conduct this research through the help of questionnaires and personal interviews that will be filled by the students and their parents.…

Educational Problems in Egypt

Egypt has the most significant educational system in the (MENA); Middle East and North Africa according to the Human Development Index (HDI). Although the educational system had been developing hastily since the beginning of the 1990s, Egypt had been continuously facing serious and accumulated problems in education. An exploding population, an increasing poverty, low literacy rates, drastic injustice in schools qualities; schools in urban areas where the rich can pay for education are better than other schools in different areas, Low teaching salaries and inconsistent funding for the educational system by the government, all led to a decreasing educational quality mainly in the most essential and indispensable part of the educational system which is basic education, also it led many teachers to the road of private tutoring for extra income. Moreover, memorization rather than critical thinking was unwillingly encouraged through physical punishment in schools and homes. For countless Egyptian children fragmented information was the result and that was never considered real knowledge. Yet again as a product of these causes, more and more escalating numbers of graduates are found unemployed. Egypt will continue to face an educational crisis, as lack of well trained teachers, effective schools and developed educational equipment unless a much better financial commitment is made by the government. This essay will first demonstrate the main causes of the educational problem, examine the effects of these problems on the society, discuss and analyze the previously proposed solutions and finally enlighten a solution that will most likely work in our Egyptian…

Table 1. shows the respondents of the study. It shows that there were 160 or 98.77% are students respondents while there were only 2 or 1.23% are staff respondents.…

India and Rampant Piracy

Currently, Tollywood produces around 150 films annually, with approximately three films produced per week. There are also several TV channels dedicated solely for the showing of Telugu movies.…

Topic : Microcredit Repayment in Malaysia

This chapter is discussing about the research design, data collection method, research instrument, questionnaire design and sampling frame to meet the objectives of the study. In this study, descriptive research will be conduct to obtain the information needed. It will involve acquiring primary data, preparing questionnaires and sampling method as well as deciding on how the variables will be measure and being analyse. This study will be conducted among the teachers at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tengku Ampuan Jemaah, Port Klang, Selangor.…

Religious and Ideologies Should Be Taught at School?

To know about this topic there was a survey conducted and the Questionnaire were given to the parents by going to different school and the response from the parents were good and they were interested in knowing much about the topic. There were 200 samples and all these were personally interviewed and their views were recorded.…

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