Egypt has the largest overall education system in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and it has grown rapidly since the early 1990.
In recent years the Government of Egypt has accorded even greater priority in improving the education system. According to the Human Development Index (HDI), Egypt is ranked 123 in the HDI, and 7 in the lowest 10 HDI countries in the middle east and north africa in 2009.
With the help of World Bank and other multilateral organizations. Egypt aims to increase access in early childhood care and education and the inclusion of ICT at all levels of education, especially at the tertiary level. The current overall expenditure on education is about 12.6 percent as of 2007. investment in education as a percentage of GDP rose to 4.8 in 2005 but then fell to 3.7 in 2007. The Ministry of Education is also tackling with a number of issues : trying to move from a highly centralized system to offering more autonomy to individual institutions, thereby increasing accountability. The personnel management in the education also needs to be overhauled and teachers should be hired on merit with salaries attached to the performance.
Education System In Egypt
The public education system in Egypt consists of three levels : the basic education stage for 4-14 years old : kindergarten for two years followed by primary school for six years and preparatory school for three years. Then, the secondary school stage is for three years, for ages 15 to 17, followed by the tertiary level. Education is made compulsory for 9 academic years between the ages of 6 and 14. Moreover, all levels of education are free in any government run schools.
According to the World Bank, there are great differences in educational attainment of the rich and the poor, also known as the "wealth gap". Although the median years of school completed by the rich and the poor is only one or two years but the wealth gap reaches as high as nine or ten years. In case of Egypt, the wealth gap was a modest 3 years in the mid 1990s. Overall, the composite education Index in the MENA Flagship Report. The Road Not Traveled showed promising results of Egypt's relative educational achievements. Of the 14 MENA countries analyzed, Egypt achieved the universal primary education and has reduced the gender gap at all levels of instruction, but there is still a need to improve the quality of education.
Promotional examinations are held at all levels expect in grades 3,6 and 9 at the basic education level and the grades 11 and 12 in the secondary stage, which apply standardized regional or national exams.
The Ministry of Education is responsible for making decisions about the education system with the support of three Centers : the National Center of Curricula Development, The National Center for Education Research, and the National Center for Examinations and Educational Evaluation. Each center has its own focus in formulating education policies with other state level committees. On the other hand, the Ministry of Higher Education supervises the higher educational system.
There is also a formal teachers' qualification track in place for basic and secondary education levels. The teachers are required to complete four years of pre-service courses at university to enter teaching profession. Specifically with respect to teacher's profession development to raise mathematics, science and technology teaching standards, the Professional Academy for Teachers offer several programs. Local teachers also take part in the international profession training program.
Starting in 2007, the Ministry of Education, Finance, and Local Development (and others) started informal discussions to experiment with the decentralization of education. Working groups were established to make more formal proposals. Proposals included ideas for starting with recurrent expenditures, using a simple and transparent formula for carrying out fiscal transfers, and making sure that transfers would reach the school itself.
During 2008 design was carried out, three pilot governorates(Faiyum, Ismailia, and Luxor) were chosen and monitoring and capacity building processes and manuals were agreed upon. The formula is quite simple, and includes enrolment, poverty, and stage of education as drivers.
During 2009 funding was decentralized all the way to the school level and schools began to achieve funding. As of late 2009, the pilot showed few if any problems, and the expected results were materlising quite well, in terms of stimulating community participation, allowing schools to spend more efficiently and assess their own priorities, and increasing the seriousness of school-based planning by creating a means to finance such plans, among other expected results. An informal assessment of the pilot revealed that the funding formula money precipitated an increase in community donations.
The Egyptian educational system is highly centralized, and is divided into three stages :
basic Education (Arabic Transliteration : al-Ta Oaleem al-Asassi)
Primary Stage
Preparatory Stage
SecondaryEducation (Arabic : Transliteration : al-Ta Oleem al-Thanawi)
Post-Secondary education(arabic : , translation : al-TaOleem al-GammeOi)
Since Egypt extension of the compulsory education law in 1981 to include the Preparatory Stage both Primary and Preparatory phases (ages 6 through 14) have been combined together under the label Basic Education beyond this stage depend on student's ability.
Types of Schools
Government Schools
generally speaking there are two types of government schools : Arabic Schools and Experimental Language Schools.
Arabic Schools, provide the governmental national curriculum in the Arabic Language. A governmental English language curriculum is taught starting at first Primary year and French is added as a second foreign language in Secondary Education.
Experimental Language Schools, teach most of the government curriculum (Science, Mathematics andComputer) in English, and adds French as a second foreign language in Preparatory Education. An advanced English language curruculum is provided in all Educational stages. Social Studies are taught in Arabic. students are admitted into first grade at age seven, a year older than Arabic schools.
Private Schools
Generally speaking there are four types of private schools
Ordinary Schools, their curriculum is quite similar to that of the government schools, but the private schools pay more attention to the students' personal needs and to the school facilities.
Language Schools, teach most of the government curriculum in English, and add french or German as a second foreign language. They are expected to be better than the other schools, because of the facilities available, but their fees are muchhigher. Some of these schools use French or German as their main language of instruction, but it may be difficult for the student in governmental universities in Arabic or English afterward.
religious schools, are religiously oriented schools as Azhar schools or Catholic schools.
International Schools, are private that follow another country's curriculum, like a British american, or french system, and the degrees earned from them get official certification from the Ministry of Education, to be eligible to enroll in Egyptian universities such schools offer even better facilities & activities than regular private schools with higher fees, but are criticized to be providing a much easier education level compared to the general curriculum, and some Egyptian universities require higher grades than those of regular schools students as a minimum for enrollment, or an extra high school certificate like SAT.
Many of the private schools were built by missionaries are currently affiliated with churches and provide quality education.
Many private schools offer additional educational programs, along with the national curriculum, such as American High School Diploma, the British IGCSE system, the French baccalaureat, the German Abitur and the International Baccalaureate. These are types of private schools in Egypt.
Basic Education
the Basic education consists of pre-primary, primary and preparatory levels of education.In Egypt the Ministry of Education coordinates preschool school education. Maximum size of a preschool should not exceed 45 students.Ministry of Education support from International agencies such as world bank to enhance childhood education system by increasing access to schools, improving the quality of education and building capacity of teachers.
The second tier of basic education is the preparatory stage or lower secondary which is 3 years long. completion of this tier grants students the Basic Education Completion Certificate. Yhe importance of co,pletion of this level is to safeguard students from illiteracy.secondary education consists of three tracks: general, vocational;/technical and the dual system. The secondary education includes3 years of education whereas the secondary Vocational track is for 3-5 years and 3 years for dual system.
77.3% of students completing preparatory stage are estimated to enroll for secondary education.At this level, students have formative and summative assessments during the first year and the average of the end of year national standardzied exams for year two and three qualifies the students to take the Certification of General Secondary Education-Thanawiya Amma, which is one of the requirements for admission into the universities .
Secondary Education
This consists of tracks : general, vocational/technical and the dual system. Vocational education which represented Mubarak Kohl schools. The general secondary stage includes 3 years of education whereas the secondary vocational track could be for 3-5 years and 3 years for dual system. To enter the secondary level the students have to pass a national exam which is given at the end of the secondary stage.77.3% of students completing preparatory stage are estimated to enter into secondary stage.At this level they have formative and summative assessments during the first year and average at the end of the year.National standardized exams for year two and three qualifies the students to take the Certificate of General Secondary Education-Thanawiya Amma, which is one of the requirements for admission in universities.
Secondary education consists of three different types: general, technical or vocational.
Technical/Vocational Secondary Education Technical education, which is provided in three-year and five-year programs, includes schools in three different fields: industrial, commercial and agricultural. The UN and other multilateral organizations are working towards improving the technical and vocational training system in Egypt. It is recommended to the Ministry of Education to introduce broad vocational skills in the curricula of general secondary schools. In this way students will be able to gain certification in practical skills needed in the job market.The Ministry of Education (MoE) controls pre-tertiary, school-based programs that can start after grade 6 and that enroll the largest number of students in TVET-over 2 million students. The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) controls the middle technical institutes (MTIs). These draw their enrollments from MoE's general secondary schools or technical schools and have much smaller enrollment numbers. Graduates o f the MoE’s vocational programs can enter vocational training centers (VTCs)
.From the 2004 data, it is estimated that 30 percent of the secondary students have opted for the vocational track
. Government of Egypt has undertaken some promising initiatives to strengthen the management and reform of the TVET system.In 2006 the Industrial Training Council(ITC) was created through a ministerial decree with a mandate to improve coordination and direction of all training related entities, projects and policies in the Ministry.This will resolve the issue faced by most firms to employ skilled work force.According to the Enterprise Surveys in 2007, 31 percent of the firms in Egypt identify labor skill level as the major constraint of doing business in the country.
Al Azhar Education System
Another system that runs in parallel with the public educational system is known as the Al-Azhar system. It consists of four years of primary stage, a three year preparatory stage and finally three years of secondary stage. The Ministry of education reduced the number of secondary school years from four to three years in 1998, so as to align the Al Azhar system with the general secondary education system. In this system as well, there are separate schools for girls and boys. Al Azhar education system is supervised by the
Supreme Council of the Al-Azhar Institution. The
Azhar Institution itself is nominally independent from the Ministry of Education, but is ultimately under supervision by the
Egyptian Prime Minister.Al Azhar schools are named "Institutes" and include primary, preparatory, and secondary phases.All schools in all stages teach religious subjects and non-religious subjects, to a certain degree- not as intensively as the state schools. The bulk of the curriculum, however, consists of religious subjects as described below. All the students are Muslims, and males and females are separated in all stages. Al-Azhar schools are all over the country, especially in rural areas. The graduates of Al-Azhar secondary schools are eligible to continue their studies only at the Al-Azhar University. As of 2007 and 2008, there are 8272 Al-Azhar schools in Egypt. In the early 2000s, Al-Azhar schools accounted for less than 4% of the total enrollment.The graduates of this system are then automatically accepted into Al-Azhar University.In 2007, the Pre-University enrollment in Al- Azhar institutes is about 1,906,290 students.
Higher Education System
Egypt has a very extensive higher education system. About 30% of all Egyptians in the relevant age group go to university. However, only half of them graduate. According to
The Economist, standards of education at Egyptian public universities are "abysmal".
The Ministry of Higher Education supervises the tertiary level of education. There are a number of universities catering to students in diverse fields. In the current education system, there are 17 public universities, 51 public non-university institutions, 16 private universities and 89 private higher institutions. Out of the 51 non –university institutions, 47 are two-year middle technical institutes (MTIs) and four are 4-5 years higher technical institutes’. The higher education cohort is expected to increase by close to 6 percent (60,000) students per annum through 2009
In 1990, a legislation was passed to provide greater autonomy to the universities17.But still the education infrastructure, equipment and human resources are not in place to cater to the rising higher education students. Gross enrollment in tertiary education increased from 27 percent in 2003 to 31 percent in 2005.But there has not been a similar increase in spending on improving the higher education system in terms of introduction of new programs and technologies.Both at national level (inspection systems, examinations) and at local level (school level student assessments) measures of the success of education strategies and the performance of the system are weak. The inspectorate system does not provide either solid technical support to school staff, nor an effective monitoring mechanism for failing schools. The examination system at the end of preparatory and secondary levels--Thanawiya Awwa, does not measure higher-order thinking skills, but concentrates rather on rote memorization. Scores can thus be raised significantly by exam specific tutoring, therefore, students with more resources can afford private tutoring which helps them to score higher on the national standardized exams and hence are accepted in top universities in Egypt. Hence, this competitive process of selection restricts students’ degree options and results, hence making students opt for programs and careers which are of little interest to them.
The Egyptian tertiary education is steered by a centralized system with institutions having little control on the decisions of the curriculum, program development and deployment of staff and faculty. Improving system governance and efficiency is an imperative that takes on added urgency given that a significant population bulge has reached the higher education system.The actual number of students entering higher education grew by 17 percent per year between 1992/93 and 1997/98. The consequence was a sharp decline in per student spending of around 40 percent in real terms over that period. The higher education cohort is projected to continue to increase by close to 6 percent (60,000 students) per annum through 2009. This means that significant efficiencies will need to be introduced into the system just to maintain quality at its current inadequate level. The performance and quality of higher education is currently severely compromised by overly centralized order to improve the already outdated system, rigid curriculum and teaching practices. Improving system governance and efficiency is an imperative that takes on added urgency given that a significant population bulge has reached the higher education system.The actual number of students entering higher education grew by 17 percent per year between 1992/93 and 1997/98. The consequence was a sharp decline in per student spending of around 40 percent in real terms over that period. The higher education cohort is projected to continue to increase by close to 6 percent (60,000 students) per annum through 2009. This means that significant efficiencies will need to be introduced into the system just to maintain quality at its current inadequate level. The
Government of Egypt recognizes that there are real challenges to be faced in the sector, foremost amongst which are the need to significantly improve sector governance and efficiency, increase institutional autonomy, significantly improve the quality and relevance of higher education programs, and maintain coverage at existing levels. Recent Government actions to build political consensus on issues critical to reform have created a climate that is ripe for change. The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) acts as a champion for reform. The Minister, appointed in 1997, quickly established a committee for the reform of higher education (known as the HEEP Committee) which drew in a wide range of stakeholders including industrialists and parliamentarians. A National Conference on higher education reform was held in February 2000, and a Declaration for action emanating from the Conference was endorsed by the President and the Prime Minister. The Declaration identified 25 specific reform initiatives. The Bank agrees with, and supports, the Declaration. A range of multilateral and bilateral agencies,including the
World Bank, also concur with the Declaration's proposals, and are committed to supporting various aspects of the reform process
]. The Government's Higher Education Reform Strategy Egyptian higher education reform strategy included 25 projects addressing all the reform domains, is implemented over three phases until 2017, and corresponds to the government's five year plans as follows:
First phase from 2002 to 2007
Second phase from 2007 to 2012
Third phase from 2012 to 2017
Priority has been given to 12 projects in the first phase of implementation (2002 - 2007) and were integrated into the following six projects: HEEP Six Priority Projects (2002-2007)
Higher Education Enhancement Project Fund (HEEPF),
Information and Communications Technology Project (ICTP),
Egyptian Technical Colleges Project (ETCP),
Faculty of Education Project (FOEP),
Faculty Leaders Development Project (FLDP),
Quality Assurance and Accreditation Project (QAAP).
In August 2004, HEEP strategic priorities were adjusted to become responsive to the requirements of quality and accreditation and to correspond to the government’s approach to improving scientific research. The adjustment added two more dimensions: first, developing post graduate studies and scientific research and second, addressing students’ extra-curricular activities in addition to the continued implementation of the six prioritized programs during the first phase. Due to the dynamic nature of the reform strategy, which entails reconsidering priorities for each period, a Strategic Planning Unit (SPU) was established for the MOHE to ensure the sustainability of planning and project monitoring during the three phases and for future ones. A Students’ Activity Project (SAP) was also initiated as part of program accreditation similar to scientific research and post graduate studies
Education and the Community
There were a few attempts for positive impact and reform from the civil community in Egypt but those efforts remained very limited on their impact on the educational process. Education crisis in Egypt is very complicated, public education is not capable of providing quality education are hardly any education with the shortage in facilities, lack of trained educators and inflation in classes. Private( including International) is still incapable of reform for the lack of interest, shortage in trained educators, defective curriculum, commercialization of education and finally a customized accreditation system that involves the irrevocable licensure of International schools based on candidacy for accreditation while candidacy for accreditation is originally based on the initial efficiency of the school in providing the educational services including its status as a legal education provider that it doesn't get to get unless its a candidate school, which is setting the cart before the horse.
No community efforts have been done to address the crisis of education in Egypt until 2008, when the [International-Curricula Educators Association
جمعية معلمي المناهج الدولية(ICEA)]. was established with modest financial resources but great expectations.
The Community addressed itself to contributing to solving the educational problems in Egypt including the shortage in research, statistics and entrepreneurship in the field of education.
On 2009 it's started involving volunteers through the UNV program and has successfully began to develop its range of not-for-profit services to address several needs of the educational community in Egypt starting from affordable certified teacher training and going making its way through all the required student activites stimulating citizenship whether on the local or the global level.
Challenges
Although significant progress has been made to increase human capital base through improved education system, still the quality of education experience is low and unequally distributed. Due to lack of good quality education at the basic and secondary levels, there has been a mushrooming market for private tutoring. Now to take private tuition has become more of an obligation than a remedial activity. According to the Egypt Human Development Report (2005), 58 percent of surveyed families stated that their children take private tutoring. The CAPMAS (2004) survey showed that households spend on average around 61 percent of total education expenditure on private tutoring. In addition, per household expenditure of the richest quintile on private tutoring is more than seven times that of the poorest
. Among the issues is the lack of sufficient education in public schools and the need for private tuition. As of 2005, 61-70% of Egyptian students attend private tuition.
Other common issues include: theft of public educational funds
and leakage of exams.
Egypt also has a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled workforce.But there has been an abundance of low-skilled laborers. Even if there are any high-skilled workers available, their quality of training is quite poor. This is mostly a problem in small-medium companies and large public industries that work in “protected” domestic markets. The average gross production per worker is lower than other North African countries: Morocco and Tunisia. Youth unemployment is also very high, primarily due to lack of education system in providing necessary training under TVET programs.
A study conducted by UNESCO on educational equity in world’s 16 most populous countries placed Egypt in the middle range in terms of equity of primary and secondary enrollments across governorates in Egypt . But when the wealth component is added to education attainment, the results are not very encouraging. There are significantly higher enrollment rates in wealthier regions at both the primary and secondary levels. This confirms that more efforts are needed to reduce the wealth gap in educational attainment
