Gov’t presents efforts to integrate differently-abled people to parliament

CAIRO – 15 March 2022: The Egyptian Ministry of Education and Technical Education presented Tuesday at the parliament the efforts made and the future vision to integrate differently-abled people into pre-university education.

This came in response to a inquiry from a parliamentarian regarding integrating people with disabilities into intermediate schools, in the pre-public education stage (kindergarten) and the primary stage after selecting some suitable and qualified educational places to receive them.

The Education Committee at the House of Representatives held a meeting on Tuesday last week, and listened to the presentation of Dr. Hala Abdel Salam, Head of the Central Administration for Special Education, and indicated that there are a set of ministerial decisions regulating the educational integration process.

According to Dr. Abdel Salam, the set of regulations included ministerial resolutions integrating children with simple and mild disabilities in public education schools.

She pointed out that in 2015/2016 5,000 teachers were trained, and from 2016 to 2019 25,000 teachers were trained, and from 2019/2022, 40,000 teachers were trained. The training programs included specialized training in 9 governorates including: (Assiut - Sohag - Qena - Alexandria - Beheira - Gharbia - Matrouh - Damietta - Cairo).

The Ministry of Education reviewed the statistics on integration from 2013/2014 until 2021/2022, indicating that the total number of students enrolled in 2013/2014 was 3,613, in 2014/2015 it was 4,125, in 2015/2016 the number was 8,800, and in 2016/2017 it reached 17,229, in 2017/2018 it amounted to 37,519, in 2018/2019 it reached 59,391, and in 2019/2020 the number of integrated students reached 83,952, and in 2020/2021 it reached 108,224, and in 2021/2222 the total number reached 101,500.