A campaign to ban private tuition by the governor of Ismailia has met with mixed reactions from stakeholders in education. “Without private lessons, we would never see distinguished students in our schools,” says Ahmad Abdullah, an elimentary school teacher in Ismailia, in response to the governor, General Yaseen Taher, and the Ministry of Education’s campaign ‘A Province Without Private Lessons’.

A campaign to ban private tuition by the governor of Ismailia has met with mixed reactions from stakeholders in education. “Without private lessons, we would never see distinguished students in our schools,” says Ahmad Abdullah, an elimentary school teacher in Ismailia, in response to the governor, General Yaseen Taher, and the Ministry of Education’s campaign ‘A Province Without Private Lessons’.

According to Governor Taher, the campain aims to “face the rampant phenomenon of private lessons in the province, improve the education system and reinstate the school as the main source of education.” Taher says the campaign also aims to make school more attractive to children as an alternative to private tuition by organizing extra study groups in every school.

Fatwa on private tuition

The Egyptian House of Jurisprudence, responsible for making religious laws, issued a legally non-binding Fatwa banning private lessons. The Fatwa distinguished two kinds of private lessons:

“The first kind includes the private lessons given by professional teachers. This kind of private lessons have become a social illness impairing the entire education system and bringing forth dangerous social and psychological effects. It grossly diminishes the ethical standing of teachers in the eyes of their students and it destroys the values of learning. For these reasons, the Egyptian House of Jurisprudence issued a law banning every one of those who work in educational institutions from giving private lessons. The House holds this ban as mandatory and hence, giving private lessons is considered a violation of religious law.”

The House allows the second definition, which is, ”supervised study groups organized by public and private institutions for fees affordable to most of the parents, and the private lessons given by charitable organizations. This kind of private lessons is allowed by the House”.

Household troubles

But Hasan Nader, an intermediate school teacher, is sceptical about how the ban will be implemented: “The head of the security department himself has tutors teaching his children,” Nader told Correspondents. “What would he do? Would he arrest the teachers from his home?” He believes the state should collaborate with private tuition centers, not work against them, to streamline and incorporate their expertise into schools.

Tara Abdulrahman says there is an element of hypocrisy about the new ban. “Doctors have private clinics and government employees have second jobs,” notes Abdulrahman, who says teachers are being persecuted. “The only way these lessons can be in violation of the religious law is if the teachers coerced the students to take the lessons, or if they discriminated between school students and private students, and this never happens,” adds Abdulrahman.

Officials at the Ministry of Education were initially accused of turning a blind eye towards certain private tuition centers, although some centers were subsequently fined and suspended. Several senior officials were also fined and suspended.

Tutors turn cheek

Abdullah says that high achieving students at many school levels, especially in high school, are children who receive additional private tuition. “The private tutor is a good substitute for parents in helping children with their school curricula, especially when the parents either do not have the time to help their children or they lack the education to do so,” Abdullah told Correspondents. He said that he personally offers private tuition and employs the help of other teachers to tutor his own children.

Hasan Nader argues that private lessons bring revenue to the state, since the teachers who work in tutoring centers pay taxes on their earnings. “Banning these lessons would definetly deprive the struggling state from much needed revenue,” he says.

Taha Abdulrahman, a high school teacher of Arabic, says teachers themlseves need the extra income. “The dire economic situation and low salaries are the reasons why teachers do not abstain from giving private lessons.”

Parents are also not happy about the ban. “If we did not have the oppurtunity to hire private tutors, our children would fail at school or at best pass with low grades, because the schools do not really teach the children: most of the teachers are either unqualified or do not care much about the education of the children,” says Abdulrahman Al-Saied, a parent in Ismailia.

Fees & higher wages

Ahmad Abdulla believes that the state must pay teachers a five thousand Egyptian pound (562 USD) minimum salary without setting a maximum salary. Abdulla also suggests teaching English at a later age. “The books are large and hard. Therefore, it must be eliminated and taught only in the three final levels,” he says. “In addition, schools must be open between nine in the morning and five in the evening, and the school day must include time for rest and a hot meal for both the children and the teachers, followed by a period for the teachers to review the syllabus with the students, similar to what happens in tutoring centers.”

Taha Abdulrahman says the government should make parents pay a fee to subsidize more private lessons in schools. “Every Egyptian household with children in schools spends at least five thousand pounds on private lessons a year. Instead, the state should charge these families an annual sum of two thousand pounds (225 USD), one thousand each semester. It would generate enough revenue to fulfill the needs of the teachers and make them work only in schools. This would spare them the need to give private lessons,” suggests Abdulrahman.