In a massive stride towards a globally-recognized standard of Education, Egypt has altered its national charter to require the state to spend at least 4% of the national budget on education and at least a further 2% of higher education, if ‘global rates’ are not met, the percentages will be gradually increased, this differs from prior years when the state was only required to contribute an ‘adequate’ amount to Public Education. This works out to 94.4 billion Egyptian Pounds (about $13.1 Billion or £7.8 Billion).
These new changes are part of a larger plan by Education Minister Mahmoud Abou Nasr which was unveiled in a five-hour meeting with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi earlier on this week. The new changes are a dynamic change from Egypt’s past state education with new technology and funding from investors in the United Arab Emirates helping to strengthen the strategy further.
Under the new plan, free extra classes will be offered to all students and classes will be limited to a maximum of 40 students a class in order to provide a higher quality of education to each student individually. Additionally, the standard curriculum used in Egypt is being radically altered with 30% already having been changed and the remaining 70% also undergoing major changes. Technology is expected to play a big role with The Million Student Project being launched in schools through support by entities in the UAE.
The strategy also asks for civil society members to begin setting up new schools and old schools are looking to be refurbished and restocked, alongside having new facilities being built and a nutrition programme being introduced into the system. Furthermore, measures to eliminate illiteracy and to lower student dropout rates are being taken. It’s expected that between 50 and 60 thousand teaching graduates will be prepared to work both locally in Egypt and throughout the Gulf states through this plan.
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[Source: AhramOnline - Egypt embarks on long-term education reform programme]