CAIRO - 29 August 2022: A recent study shed the light on technical education in Egypt, stressing that the previous decades witnessed a large gap between education and the labor market, and listed that among the reasons that led to this was the failure to involve specialists in agriculture, industry, trade and technology in formulating the goals and outcomes of technical education.
The study explained that the graduates of technical education in most of its specializations did not possess the skills that would enable them to keep pace with the labor market, which was often followed by the difficulty of providing skilled manpower and knowledge of the nature of business and its innovations of all kinds.
Consequently, this negatively affected the possibility of settling some industries and economic activities, and graduates of this system tended to practice the usual simple crafts, whether inside or outside Egypt, which is a waste of Egyptian human resources, according to the study.
The study prepared by Dr. Ahmed Sayed Daoud stated that the Ministry of Education is heading towards the need to develop technical education to meet the requirements of the labor market by acquiring the technical education graduate with the necessary skills that qualify them.
This will be through the application of the Merit system in various types of agricultural, industrial, commercial and other technical education. Merit is the clear application of the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to work in a specific field, job or profession according to defined standards.
The study pointed to the merit system, which the state seeks to generalize to all technical education schools by the end of 2022, to provide knowledge, skills and functional values in a way that is more relevant to the labor market. According to the study, specialists in economic and service activities participate in determining the labor market requirements that a graduate of technical education must possess. By taking their views on the curricula and courses and benefiting from their real experiences in their various specializations to formulate technical education programs and the logistical aspects of implementing those programs, as well as using them in the process of supervision and evaluation of the level of achievement of technical education students with the competencies necessary for the labor market.
The study pointed out that the Egyptian Ministry of Education and Technical Education began applying the merits system to 105 schools, and the number reached 400 schools by the end of 2021.
It is intended that this system will be applied to 1,200 schools by the end of 2022, and it is scheduled that approximately 23,000 male and female students will graduate from the system as the first class of the academic merit system in technical education.
During the three years technical education, students study their courses in the form of a set of separate units each year divided into two semesters, where students study cultural subjects (basic competencies) and each subject is considered a stand-alone unit in addition to the majors (technical competencies) are programs that include specific separate units.
The study showed that the evaluation mechanisms of the merit system differ from the traditional system, where the assessment according to the merit system includes three types of assessment: cognitive assessment, skill assessment, and student achievement profile.
In the cognitive assessment, students are tested in what has been studied, both in cultural subjects (basic competencies) and specialized units (technical competencies) in theory according to the Booklet system. Students are allowed to enter a second round if they do not obtain the minimum final grade to pass the subject.
In the skill assessment, the student is subjected to a skill test, where he is asked to perform skill tasks within the units studied in the competency curriculum, and the student is observed by three assessors who use note cards, then the scores placed by the assessors are collected and the average score obtained is calculated.
The study stated that empowering technical education students and acquiring the competencies necessary for the labor market is the main objective of the competency system; Therefore, a system has been developed to ensure the eligibility of the graduate of technical education and to provide more than one opportunity for students to achieve this, as the student is assigned to perform a specific assignment in the skill assessment of competencies.
The student is then subject to attending a treatment program for two weeks with prescribed fees that are paid electronically, and in case he fails for the third time, he is entitled to enter another round of the merits, and according to the levels of merit rating, the students are divided into: A student who is not proficient in merit (and is entitled to enter the second round after the treatment program), and an unworthy student (when he has not passed more than two units of the prescribed merits - or he is absent from attendance for more than two units of the prescribed units).
According to the study, technical education students receive two certificates according to the merit system, the first is a diploma in technical education, and the other is a specialized certificate that includes all the competencies that the student has completed according to his technical specialization. This certificate shows employers the skills and competencies that the graduate possesses when applying for work.
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