Figures on applied technology schools in Egypt released

CAIRO – 10 February 2022: The "Technical Education Development Strategy" submitted by the Ministry of Education to the House of Representatives included some figures on applied technology schools and targets for 2030.

The document indicated that the number of students at schools offering a joint education system, combining the theoretical part with vocational training, rose from 42,000 in 2017 to 55,000 in 2021.

Equally, the number of schools delivering such educational system increased from 47 in 2017 to 66 in 2021, where the number of specializations offered became 56. Currently, students at those schools compose just 3 percent of all technical education students, whose number now stands at 2.1 million. However, there is a plan to raise that figure to 10 percent by 2030.

The strategy also showcased that 28 applied technology schools were introduced by the ministry. That is in addition to six international others that were implemented in partnership by the USAID.   

The ministry targets to introduce 10 applied technology schools annually so that the total number of such schools becomes 100 by 2030, Spokesperson Mohamed Megahed told press in November 2019, when the country had just 11 of those schools.

Those schools offer modern technical education and set the maximum number of students per classroom at 25. The existing ones are located in Cairo, Giza, Qalyoubeya, Alexandria, Port Said, Suez, and three other governorates in Upper Egypt.

Deputy Minister of Education and Technical Education Mohamed Megahed stated in a phone-in in January that less than 10 percent of the 40,000 candidates, who applied to join applied technology schools, got admitted.