Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated on Wednesday the Egyptian-Japanese University for Science and Technology in Alexandria’s city of Borg El Arab, as well as private universities, the Presidency said.
The president is also set to open other projects for the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the Ministry of Education.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, and other state officials attended the ceremony.
At the opening event, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said education is an issue of national security and represents a top priority for the government.
He said the state faces challenges in education such as the high number of students per classroom, poor education quality indicators, high illiteracy rates, and insufficient technical education schools
Egypt has about 30,000 schools with 500,000 classrooms and 23.5 million students.
Madbouly noted that 73,000 new classrooms, which would cost EGP 40 billion, need to be established to reach an opitimum ratio of students per class.
He added that 38 more universities are also needed to cope with population growth.
Madbouly said the state has invested EGP 100 billion in education, including higher education, over the past six years.
