CAIRO – 30 October 2018: The Ministry of Education has launched a campaign to close down a number of private tutoring centers for school students in the Heliopolis and Nozha area.
The Ministry of Education has made significant efforts over several decades to ban private tutoring for school students, as private lessons have become a major burden to families’ household incomes.
Searching for legal obstacles these private centers are facing, Egypt Today could recognize no direct legislation prohibiting private lessons outside schools. However, Mohamed Omar, Deputy Minister of Education for Teachers' Affairs, said that a draft law criminalizing private lessons would be submitted to Cabinet within two weeks.
Ahmed Taymour, the deputy Cairo Governor, said that private tutoring centers are unlicensed, adding that the penalty of establishing unlicensed facilities amounts to a fine ranging from LE10,000 ($558) to LE20,000 ($111,7), and a six-month prison sentence.
Ahmed Saber, a media adviser to the Minister of Education, said that there are as many as 131 private lessons centers in Heliopolis and Nozha, stressing that the Ministry had not granted any licenses for such centers.
Behind scenes
Parents and children have turned to private lessons outside school premises, which prepare students to the Thanaweya Amma (high school) final exams.
Average fees per student amount to around LE 30,000 (about $1,677) over the Thanaweya Amma year, the final year of schooling over the course of 10 months, including private lessons that may consume up to 33 hours a week. Private tutoring remains common despite the government’s efforts to limit it.
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