Education Min. clarifies obstacles facing Egyptian-Japanese schools

CAIRO – 24 October 2017: The Minister of Education Tarek Shawky was summoned to the parliament’s general assembly on Monday in order to respond to 40 motions submitted to the cabinet and the ministry regarding education in Egypt.

Egyptian-Japanese Schools
The minister said that Japan gave Egypt a grant and a loan to establish schools adopting the Japanese teaching methods and not Japanese curricula; the project focuses on building mentalities able to operate within a team.

Shawky said that the main reasons behind postponing the operation of these schools to the next academic year are the shortage in buildings and qualified teachers who have been trained in Japan. Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance did not grant the budget necessary to pay the wages of these teachers and buy the necessary equipment, so the final output would not match the state’s vision of developing education.

The minister stated that each student would cost LE 16,000 ($906.38) per year at these schools so it is impossible to grant such a service free of charge. He added that President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi will talk more about “the dream of building the Egyptian citizen” at the upcoming World Youth Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh.

As for developing technical education in Egypt, Shawky said that the ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to match the skills taught to students with the market needs and the investment map. He said that the ministry is also cooperating with Germany and Italy in that sector; stating that a meeting would be held on October 29 with international entities concerned with technical education.

Budget
Shawky stated that the ministry’s budget is LE 80 million, of which LE 68 million are allocated to wages and salaries. The minister added that the ministry can operate with such a budget which was the case throughout the past years.
Shawky clarified that bonuses are much higher than original wages, and that their method of distribution is “deformed;” stressing that this is one of the most difficult issues to tackle within the ministry.

Development Strategies
The minister stated that there are a lot of strategies formulated since 1960 to develop education in Egypt; however, many of these are inapplicable, so new ones have been set and presented to Sisi.

Shawky emphasized that the main challenge in the face of educational development is the imminent harm to the interests of many who benefit from the flaws in the current system. “They are many in number, and they are waging conspiracies to deter the development process,” the minister stated.

Hard copies of school books cost LE 3 billion, while the informal sector of private lessons amount to LE 30 billion per year. The minister warned that those benefiting of these phenomena would push hard against development.

The minister also criticized parents who object to the increase in fees which is merely LE 20 per academic year, while accepting to pay LE 2,000 for one teacher in private lessons. He explained that the increase is due to amendments in the health insurance law which had imposed further financial duties on the ministry, in addition to distributing 11 million free meals at schools daily.

Shawky stated that private schools run by members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood have been put under the control of the ministry to bear the name June 30 schools, and that their directors are being currently selected.

The minister said that the new Thanaweya Amma system – which is last year of high school that qualifies students for university - will be introduced in 10 months, and that it would not rely completely on humans to administer the examination process.

“Currently, people switched from being eager to learn to being concerned with securing a seat at a university,” Shawky said as the ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Higher Education to change the admission system at public universities and colleges.