Initiative launched to address public schools’ poor infrastructure

CAIRO – 9 February 2018: The “Legitimate Rights in Education, Our Rights” team launched an initiative to monitor government schools’ infrastructure across Egypt in order to improve those not up to standard.

The founder of “Legitimate Rights in Education, Our Rights” Alia al-Jumaili said that the initiative aims to limit the suffering of some governmental schools because of poor infrastructure, lower levels of technological structure and overcrowded classrooms.



"Legitimate Demands in Education" team-Facebook


She added that the initiative will shed the light on the students’ educational levels in the schools particularly those who are in villages and hamlets overlooked by officials, stressing that the initiative will identify the problems on the ground in cooperation with Ministry of Education’s officials.

She referred that many officials in the ministry have taken measure to face these problems and barriers, adding that before focusing on introducing technology in schools the levels of schools should be considered not to waste the public fund.

Enrollment rates to Egypt’s public schools are very high, but public education needs efficient spending and improved facilities to tackle the longstanding problems they face.

One of the main problems they face is that classrooms in the public schools are overcrowded to the extent that students cannot find desks. There are no restrictions to control pupil’s increasing number in classrooms, resulting in the inability of teachers to properly supervise students.

Overcrowded classrooms are not the only barrier between students and a good education as poor facilities and the lack of refurbishment in public schools are pervasive issues. The issue is manifested in broken windows, doors and desks; unrepaired water systems and sanitations systems; the bad state of science labs and the lack of technological resources for the students.

Poor school maintenance has caused two well-known accidents in 2014, on October 13, a primary school student died after a dilapidated window at Ammar ibn Yasir public school in the El-Matareya district of Cairo fell down onto him, cutting his throat.

This second incident occurred on October 19,of the same year, at Zaghyrat public primary school in the Matrouh governorate the school gate fell on a seven-year-old student. The school principal stated that the gate was old and dilapidated and could not withstand the blowing wind.

Negligence and lack of maintenance in Egyptian schools was acknowledged by the Ministry of Education spokesperson Hani Kamal after the two accidents, stating that the “large legacy of disasters and 50,000 dilapidated schools that cannot be repaired overnight.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education Deputy at Matrouh Safey el-Din al-Mawhoub said that many public schools in the governorates that need full maintenance, but the money allocated for that is only sufficient for seven schools.

Consequently, improving the quality of education in Egypt is one of the main challenges before the government in the current period, which start with revamping state schools’ facilities and meet the needs of students and teachers.