The former Egyptian regimes have tried hard to keep politics out of our schools, and to suppress any political activity in the Egyptian universities, raising the slogan “No politics in education”.
Suddenly, we had a revolution, and politics have been mixed with everything in Egypt including educational institutions. Unfortunately, such mixture wasn’t void of violence and chaos. Thus, many people are demanding the prevention of politics in schools and universities, which was refused by many people as well.
We should admit that the reason to one of our biggest problems, which is the lack of young political cadres that we can't find somebody to nominate for the presidency, is that we don’t allow politics in our schools.
I’m talking here about “political education”, which all young Egyptians should learn in schools. They should learn about democracy, dialogue, freedom, equality, acceptance of the others, thinking skills and decision-making. They should know what we mean by “political parties and types of government”.
I must point out here that simulation and practice are very critical for such political education. The regular education system in Egypt won’t help. Rather, discussions should be made as well as votes. Group discussions should include different religions, races and sexes.
The Egyptians had been deprived from democracy and politics for a long time that we became not ready to practice democracy. This became crystal clear after the revolution of January 25, 2011. Therefore, we should learn from our mistakes and fix this situation through education. We now have this chance after the religious fascists had been ousted. Yet, the ministries of education, culture, and information have to carry out their obligations and educate the Egyptian people.
