Lamis is six years old and her family has been searching for an appropriate school for her for one year. A placement test at the local public (albeit with tuition) Nile School last year when she was five, asked Lamis about shapes, colors and names of things in Arabic and English.

Lamis is six years old and her family has been searching for an appropriate school for her for one year. A placement test at the local public (albeit with tuition) Nile School last year when she was five, asked Lamis about shapes, colors and names of things in Arabic and English.

Her parents, however, thought this was too demanding. “We wanted our daughter to only play and to enjoy her time at this young age,” said Haitham who then registered his daughter at a private language school far from the family’s home in Sheikh Zayed City, in Sixth of October neighborhood. Lamis has to travel eight kilometers two times a day.

During the 195 days of study that begins at the end of September and continues through June 2016, more than 22 million students will attend classes in public and private schools and language schools. The latter have two categories: 1) teaching local curricula in foreign languages, and 2) teaching international curricula.

Egypt’s pre-university education strategy of 2014-2030 was designed to guide teachers and educators on how a state should ideally teach young children. It provided an outline of a comprehensive educational plan, which includes a theoretical framework of values and ethics including a statement by the Minister of Awqaf (Religious Affairs), Mohammed Juma’a, with similar content on the writings of Rev. Paul Halim, priest of Mary Girgis Church and spokesman of the Coptic Orthodox Church about the common moral values in all religions. The priest sets a comparative table to confirm this convergence, identifying three boxes: “the Koran,” the Bible,” and “the global ethical guidelines,” making it clear that the divine laws intersect within this table and so does the Egyptian education system.

The plan also includes urgent actions to solve the outstanding problems within the Egyptian schools including the establishment of 1000 schools in underprivileged Egyptian villages and reducing student density to 40-30 students per classroom, down from 120 students in certain major governorates, like Giza. There is a plan to turn schools into industrial projects, through establishing six wood/paper recycling facilities, six factories production solar energy and energy-saving lamps, along with two electronics factories. It will also provide about 60 solar stations on the rooftops of school buildings – 1200 by the end of the academic year 2016-2017.

Realistic goals?

This 188-page plan is the product of a number of public and academic figures from educational psychology professors, planning experts, and the president of the independent teachers’ union, in addition to a number of international experts from UNESCO. However, the plan appears to be a far-fetched goal incompatible with the actual practice of Egyptian schools.

In 2004, the government had embarked on an educational modernization plan and established the Educational Development Council (EDC). The government schools suffered from significant decline and limited budgets. Private schools are only required to comply with certain specifications in school buildings, teaching the curriculum of the Ministry of Education or obtaining the relevant approvals in case they desire to adopt other curricula. They are also expected to promote spiritual, educational and moral values, and demonstrate loyalty to the homeland and citizenship.

Haitham did not like a system of teachers providing religious ideas and guidance to his daughter and decided to transfer Lamis to a public language school near his residence in the new school year, only to find himself trapped in a maze of bureaucratic procedures.

The school has requested a number of documents including evidence that the other school is far from his residence and that his family cannot afford to pay the expenses of private education. After more than one month and a half in that bureaucratic labyrinth, Lamis secured a place at a public school in Sheikh Zayed, but it was an evening school, starting at noon and ending at 5 pm. The family has not made up their mind yet about to the nature of the school,  even though the new school year is fast approaching.