Egyptian Education Where Is Heading

Fine those parents are not poor people they can afford a private school expenses not to talk of the must for all private lessons, a phenomenon taking place since years in Egypt creating a chain of endless problems I'll explore most what my mind can recollect, but first let me have a brief historical review.

Brief History of Cairo University

Cairo University became a reality on December 21st, 1908 after the sincere and persistent efforts of a group of dignitaries which started some years earlier. Of these were included the well-known national leader Moustafa Kamel, the distinguished scholar and religious leader Sheik Mohammed Abdu and some wealthy nationals such as Ahmed El-Menshawy Pasha, Moustafa Bek El-Ghamrawy and many others. The first permanent committee of the University was established on March 12th, 1908. Following were elaborate preparatory efforts by the national leader Saad Zaghloul, the committee was chaired by Prince Ahmed Fouad, and Vice-Chaired by Saad Zaghloul himself. Following the appointment of Saad Zaghloul as Minister of Education, the prominent national scholar Kassem Amin was appointed as Committee Vice-Chairman.

 

During the early days of the University, lectures were given in various locations and were advertised in the press. A palace was then rented to house lecture halls. The first program of the, then, private university included the following five programs:

 

   •   Islamic Civilization

   •   Ancient Civilizations in Egypt and the East

   •   History, Geography and Languages of the Arabs

   •   History of French Literature

   •   History of English Literature

 

However, the University had always been very flexible and continuously developing and modernizing its programs.

 

On March 30th, 1914 the foundation stone of the permanent site of the University was laid down at Giza. This event marked the success of the elaborate and sincere efforts of Princess Fatma Ismail and Prince Youssef Kamal who generously donated fund and land for this noble cause. The donated land has ever since been occupied by the University Campus.

 

The Board of the University welcomed the efforts of the government to establish a state-owned university, and an agreement was reached to group private and state universities in one establishment of higher education. Consequently, a royal decree was issued on May 19th, 1925 to consider the Private University as the Faculty of Arts in the new state university. The House of Parliament passed a law establishing the “Egyptian University”; composed of the Faculties of Arts, Science, Law, Medicine (including Pharmacy and Dentistry). In 1935, the Royal School of Engineering, the High Schools of Agriculture and Commerce, and the School of Veteran Medicine were annexed to the University and renamed “Faculties” instead of “Schools.” The “Egyptian University” was renamed twice: in 1940 as “ the University of King Fouad the 1st, “and in 1953 as “Cairo University.”

 

Cairo University has successfully been undertaking its mission of delivering education, research and cultural duties over the years. It is considered as the mother university among other younger universities in Egypt. Cairo University is also offering its education and research facilities to Arab and foreign students and scientists, and has become well-known world wide.

Now let me copy the worlds ex-president Nasser R.I.P. Wrote upon the 23rd July 1952 revolution and highlight problems and situations that after over 61 years STILL as is! 

The Egyptian Revolution

By Gamal Abdel Nasser

FOR a century and half the Arab world had been following a negative policy. It has known what it wanted to do away with, but it has not known what it wanted to build. The Western conquest of the Middle East was mental no less than physical. Overwhelmed and unsettled, Eastern mind lost almost all national values, yet could not absorb Western values. Misapplication of Western patterns of government brought in a confused mixture of political systems and philosophies. Democracy was only a veil for dictatorship. Constitutions framed in the interest of the people of the Middle East become instruments of exploitation and domination.

Egypt story in this years centres upon the effort to free the country from a foreign yoke and to find a policy capable to eradicating the evils accumulated by feudalism and compounded by misuse of governmental power! It was long and painful search Egyptians hoped for leaders to champion their cause and defend their interests, but politicians and factions for the most parts made themselves subservient to the forces that were ravaging the country...................

I rest my case at this part the full article can be found at [The Egyptian Revolution]

School education was made free in 1956, with higher education following in 1962, when all graduates were guaranteed a job in public service. 

Great move from a real leader Nasser -R.I.P.- however let us examine some simple facts:-

1. Egypt population 1950 was 21197691 become 1956 – 24425817 that is 3228126 or 15% accumulated growth since 1950 as a basis!

2. Who could afford learning and sending his children to schools were just rich wealthy people or someone with connections to those people and they represented just ½ percent of Egyptian population schools needed for this amount of people were just very few!

3. Granting this free Education for every one in Egypt requires more schools and eventually more and more QUALIFIED TEACHERS

Followed a table of Population Growth in Egypt period 1950-1971 the year Nasser Died R.I.P.

Date Population Growth Percentage

01/01/50 21197691 Not Available

01/01/51 21704443 506752 2.00%

01/01/52 22223309 1025618 5.00%

01/01/53 22754580 1556889 7.00%

01/01/54 23298551 2100860 9.00%

01/01/55 23855527 2657836 11.00%

01/01/56 24425817 3228126 14.00%

01/01/57 25009741 3812050 16.00%

01/01/58 25607624 4409933 18.00%

01/01/59 26219800 5022109 20.00%

01/01/60 26846610 5648919 22.00%

01/01/61 27522861 6325170 24.00%

01/01/62 28173309 6975618 25.00%

01/01/63 28820665 7622974 27.00%

01/01/64 29533070 8335379 29.00%

01/01/65 30265148 9067457 31.00%

01/01/66 30986381 9788690 32.00%

01/01/67 31681188 10483497 34.00%

01/01/68 32337877 11140186 35.00%

01/01/69 32966239 11768548 36.00%

01/01/70 33574026 12376335 38.00%

01/01/71 34183988 12986297 39.00%

 

Note 

Nasser R.I.P. Decided in 1966 that /Higher Education graduates would be granted a job in public service! Note as well each new school requires many teachers!

The Government and the officials in charge were facing many problems and one of them was Qualified Teachers, but what is a Qualified Teacher? This is a huge subject out of the scope of this article however I brief teachers are many types and each needs special studies and education and training to qualify for this type, types would be Elementary Childhood teaching, that is Early childhood teaching, Special Education Teaching, that is for teachers dealing with people of special needs like hearing impair, or blind or..., Primary and Secondary teaching! That is why we have in Egypt a collage for TEACHERS, but not enough graduates to cover all new schools opened in the period 1954-1966. The other problem the government was facing was finding enough jobs for the graduates that increased between 1-2% yearly! And they solved -or thought they did- the 2 problems one shut with a simple decision that all Graduates of many collages and institutes with general grade PASS will be attached to the ministry of Education as Teachers!

Degradation of Education

This last decision was the start of Degradation in the Education to the point hi school graduates can not properly write their names or sum 2+2! First problem was how an unqualified person would deal with a child to teach him let aside if this child has special needs! Egyptian children become the first ever child born geniuses converted to absurd or goofy once attended schools!  

Education is not just teaching 1+1=2 or the alphabet and how to read and write, education means how to behave and live in real life how to think and act in a proper manner and if you do luck proper training for that you can not teach it! How can a student graduated with general degree Pass be a leader and teach if he did not properly understood his own study! 

Once again many people fled this decision and did not accept to be teachers they had to find jobs in other countries and disorganised immigration of all kinds started, some immigration was temporary in nearby Arab countries, and some was permanent in nearby or far away ones! 

The gap between normal comfortable living and just staying alive start to grow due to the hi salaries workers in nearby Arab countries got! The poor felt being poorer and the rich richer stepping on those poor guys!

Due to this degradation in the quality of life as a result of the leaders politicians and factions for the most parts made themselves GODS above accountability and took the country to its present state so it was normal the teachers who seek a life to meet the ends of the month their primary interests their salaries too week to hold a and the way out was PRIVATE LASSONS! Teacher's main concern become not to teach but how to maximise the count of PRIVATE LESSONS, and, I can not blame them for trying to survive!

Education, in spite of the good intentions of ex-president Gamal Abdel Nasser, had gone down the drain specially when ex-president Mubarak allowed private capital to buy private schools provided they follow ministry of education rules, and they did teach all what the ministry authorised but as private schools added additional subjects to destroy children minds or their capability of creativity!

I'll end up my article repeating the words of R.I.P. Nasser “Egypt story in this years centres upon the effort to free the country from a foreign yoke and to find a policy capable to eradicating the evils accumulated by feudalism and compounded by misuse of governmental power! It was long and painful search Egyptians hoped for leaders to champion their cause and defend their interests, but politicians and factions for the most parts made themselves subservient to the forces that were ravaging the country...............” Let us hope that God will help us find finally this Leader who will champion the cause of Egypt and Egyptians may God gives us the power of LOVE over the love of power!