My take on the education issue

It seems to me that the problem with education in Egypt is not the curriculum, but the students. Most students in Egypt rely on private lessons and tutors to get their education instead of their school teachers. This results in minimal school attendance. The students merely go to take their exams. With less and less students showing up for classes, the teachers were bound to lose interest at some point. And they did. With students and teachers losing interest and becoming less enthusiastic about the classroom, administration and school boards began losing interest too. The product of all this is the current education problem in Egypt. The problem is not the curriculum. The real problem is the lack of interest and care that is exhibited from both the students and teachers alike.

Egypt education curriculum modified

Egypt’s education system will be experiencing a change in curriculum starting the 2010-2011 school year. This decision was made by Egyptian Education Minister Ahmed Zaki Badr in response to complaints that the religious curriculum taught extremism and violence. The Islamic religious curriculum will be approved by Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and Dar Al Ifta. Egypt’s Christian Coptic curriculum will be approved by Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Church of Alexandria.

Source: School curricula inciting extremism to be changed

Mubarak and the media

Upon reading this article I found myself wondering if Mubarak was opening up to media.

See for yourself and let me know what your thoughts are.

Mubarak warns opposition against ‘gambling’ with Egypt’s stability

A song for Egypt

A picture tells a thousand words

El Giza el Thanawiya Banen School for Boys - Dokki, Cairo

When I first saw this picture I thought it was a prison. I was wrong. It’s a school. This picture shows how far the students would go to avoid going to school. Behavior such as this is seen as the norm at some of Egypt’s schools. Could the problem with Egypt’s education system be a lack of discipline?

Poverty

Dar el Salam, Cairo - homes among trash and wasteland

This is no Leaning Tower of Pisa, this apartment building could fall at any minute and kill it's inhabitants. Location: Alexandria, Egypt

This apartment building may not be leaning, but it is no better shape than the one before.

Shobra, Cairo - This shows the huge class difference in Egypt. There is a tall luxurious apartment building that overlooks small beat up homes for the poor.

A home in Al Imam el Shafeiy, Giza.

photos provided by: Ahmed Farag

No government action in helping the poor

Citizens of the small city Ismailia in Egypt are living in very poor conditions. Their shelters are more huts than they are houses. The roofs are covered by straw and drips water when it rains. Their homes do not have indoor plumbing. They put their waste in a hole and each week a different family collects the waste and puts it in the fields as fertilizer. The waste hole is located directly next to their water pipes, therefore contaminating their water. They do not have money for food and collect trash from any areas around them to dig for food for their families. The elderly have no access to medication and cannot afford to buy it. The children have no water or bathrooms in their schools. They receive no government aid. There is a group of rabid dogs that go around terrorizing the community. The citizens complained to their governor of this but nothing was done. The dogs have attacked and literally ate four children so far. The government has failed to react. How much will these people have to endure before the government finally gives them a helping hand?

Source: “wahed men el nas” 4/16/10 episode

Politics on Facebook

Heba Raslan, a friend on Facebook, shared her thoughts regarding the Egyptian security trying to put down young Egyptians’ calls for constitutional change.

Heba Raslan: “The stupid Egyptian security thinks that terrorizing young Egyptians demanding constitutional changes is the answer, well you can confiscate videos from the media so that your crimes arent exposed, you can abduct them, you can hit the girls, you can curse them but you’d better know that violence w those young ones will… only make them insist more, that’s how revolutions happen.”

source: Heba Raslan’s Facebook profile.

Education in numbers

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics:

• 16% of children are enrolled in pre-primary school
• 92% of girls are enrolled in primary school
• 95% of boys are enrolled in primary school
• 95% of children complete primary school
• 12.6% of government spending goes to education
• 66.4% of adults and 84.9% of youth are literate

History of Education

Education in Egypt began with religious and spiritual education that took place in mosques or in a “madrasa” as it was taught in seminaries and monasteries in Christian Europe. The main schools during this time were Al-Azhar and the “Khuttab” schools for learning the Qur’an. Al Azhar focused on Arabic grammar and poetry, logic and rhetoric. After completing this, the student could choose to continue education at Al Azhar as an intern and study “hadith”, the narratives and actions of the Prophet and his companions), the meaning of the Qur’an and Islamic law and ethics.
In 1818, Mohamed Ali founded a school where the princes and children of court members were educated. He realized that women should also be educated and had foreign women teachers come teach the daughters of the royal family and the daughters of members of the court.  In 1836, Mohamed Ali proposed establishing a school for girls. He was afraid of opposition from the ignorant and founded a school for midwives instead. As people realized that graduating from Mohamed Ali’s schools would give them a better position in society and give them employment and wealth, the demand for education increased.

Credit: Al-Ahram Weekly

Unanswered questions

• What are the people who are living on less than $2 per day feeling? Do they have hope?
• Were the southern areas always the poorest?
• How was Egypt’s economy before Mubarak was in power?
• Where in the South are the poverty hot spots?
• How has education in Egypt changed throughout history?
• Is the government helping with poverty and education? What is the scope of that help?
• Are there formal studies or projections that address the future of the poverty issue or the education issue? What are the informal opinions of both observers and actors on the scene? how do the latter see their own futures?