Parl motion against removal of revolutions from curriculum

CAIRO – 2 July 2017: Majda Naser, a member at the Education and Scientific Research Committee, will submit a motion on Saturday to Ali Abdel Aal, the Speaker of the Parliament and to Tarek Shawki, the Minister of Education, over the removal revolutionary events from the history curriculum.

In an attempt to introduce educational reforms for the Egyptian high school system ( Known in Arabic as Thanawya Amma), the Ministry of Education has removed parts referring to both January 25 and June 30 revolutions out of the history curriculum on June 18 2017.

Naser has pointed out that these set of events have already passed and must be mentioned in full without any analysis.

In an exclusive interview with Youm7, Naser clarified that at least 15 years must pass for a historical event or revolution to be documented. However, she added that “there is a major difference between documenting history and stating a set of events.

“The 15 year period of time required to document history is a phase of evaluation and analysis carried out over this duration,” Naser said.

“During the 15 year period of time needed to document history, events are evaluated and analyzed,” Naser emphasised.

Naser noted that the current generations should receive clear and detailed information about the two revolutions.

The failure to state the revolutionary events in the curriculum will leave the upcoming generations with no option but to obtain such information through the internet , whose sources are often biased and are neither reliable nor credible, Naser said.

Such educational reforms were introduced within the Ministry’s attempt to create new curricula for different school grades.

In 2014, the Ministry of Education annulled amendments incorporated by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood on the educational curriculums. For example, a high school course titled "the Difference between a Revolution and a Coup" was removed. Officials also ordered to stop printing psychology and sociology textbooks for the same reason.