Egypt EDUCATION
Literacy class for girls at women's vocational training
center
Courtesy Courtesy UNICEF, Sean Sprague
Students in an engineering class at Cairo University
Courtesy Embassy of Egypt, Washington
Prior to the nineteenth century, the ulama and Coptic clergy
controlled Egypt's traditional education. The country's most
important institutes were theological seminaries, but most mosques
and churches--even in villages--operated basic schools where boys
could learn to read and write Arabic, to do simple arithmetic, and
to memorize passages from the Quran or Bible. Muhammad Ali
established the system of modern secular education in the early
nineteenth century to provide technically trained cadres for his
civil administration and military. His grandson, Ismail, greatly
expanded the system by creating a network of public schools at the
primary, secondary, and higher levels. Ismail's wife set up the
first school for girls in 1873. Between 1882 and 1922, when the
country was under British administration, state education did not
expand. However, numerous private schools, including Egypt's first
secular university, were established. After direct British rule
ended, Egypt adopted a new constitution that proclaimed the state's
responsibility to ensure adequate primary schools for all
Egyptians. Nevertheless, education generally remained accessible
only to the elite. At the time of the 1952 Revolution, fewer than
50 percent of all primary-school-age children attended school, and
the majority of the children who were enrolled were boys. Nearly 75
percent of the population over ten years of age was illiterate.
More than 90 percent of the females in this age group were
illiterate.
The Free Officers dramatically expanded educational
opportunities. They pledged to provide free education for all
citizens and abolished all fees for public schools. They doubled
the Ministry of Education's budget in one decade; government
spending on education grew from less than 3 percent of the gross
domestic product
(GDP--see Glossary) in 1952-53 to more than 5
percent by 1978. Expenditures on school construction increased
1,000 percent between 1952 and 1976, and the total number of
primary schools doubled to 10,000. By the mid-1970s, the
educational budget represented more than 25 percent of the
government's total current budget expenses. Since the mid-1970s,
however, the government has virtually abandoned the country's
earlier educational goals. Consequently, public investment in new
educational infrastructure has declined in relation to total
educational expenditures; about 85 percent of the Ministry of
Education's budget has been designated for salaries.
From academic year 1953-54 through 1965-66, overall enrollments
more than doubled. They almost doubled again from 1965-66 through
1975-76. Since 1975 primary-school enrollments have continued to
grow at an average of 4.1 percent annually, and intermediate school
(grades seven through nine) at an average of 6.9 percent annually
(for 1985-86 enrollments, see;
table 2, Appendix). The proportion of
the population with some secondary education more than doubled
between 1960 and 1976; the number of people with some university
education nearly tripled. Women made great educational gains: the
percentage of women with preuniversity education grew more than 300
percent while women with university education grew more than 600
percent. By academic year 1985-86, about 84 percent of the primary-
school-age population (more than 6 million of the 7.2 million
children between the ages of seven and twelve) were enrolled in
primary school. Less than 30 percent of eligible youth, however,
attended intermediate and secondary schools. Because as many as 16
percent of Egyptian children were receiving no education in the
1980s, the literacy rate lagged behind the expansion in
enrollments; in 1990 only 45 percent of the population could read
and write.
Law Number 139 of 1981, which defined the structure of
preuniversity public education, made the nine-year basic cycle
compulsory. Regardless of this law, most parents removed their
children from school before they completed ninth grade. The basic
cycle included six years of primary school and three years of
intermediate school. Promotion from primary to intermediate school
was contingent upon obtaining passing scores on special
examinations. Admission to the three-year secondary cycle (grades
ten through twelve) also was determined by examination scores.
Secondary students chose between a general (college preparatory)
curriculum and a technical curriculum. During the eleventh and
twelfth grades, students in the general curriculum concentrated
their studies on the humanities, mathematics, or the sciences.
Students in the technical curriculum studied agriculture,
communications, or industry. Students could advance between grades
only after they received satisfactory scores on standardized tests.
The Ministry of Education, however, strictly limited the number of
times a student could retake an examination.
Various government ministries also operated training institutes
that accepted students who had completed the basic cycle. Training-
institute programs, which incorporated both secondary and
postsecondary vocational education, varied in length and provided
certificates to students who successfully completed the prescribed
curricula. Teacher-training institutes, for example, offered a
five-year program. In the academic year 1985-86, approximately
85,000 students were enrolled in all training programs; 60 percent
of the enrollees were women.
As of 1990, problems persisted in Egypt's education system. For
example, the government did not enforce laws requiring primary-
school-age children to attend school. In some areas, as many as 50
percent of the formally enrolled children did not regularly attend
classes. There were also significant regional differences in the
primary-school enrollment rate. In urban areas, nearly 90 percent
of the school-age children attended. In some rural areas of Upper
Egypt, only 50 percent attended. Overall, only half of the students
enrolled in primary school completed all six grades.
The enrollment rate for girls continued to be significantly
lower than for boys. Although increases in the number of girls
enrolled in school were greater than they were for boys in the
1960s and 1970s, boys still outnumbered girls at every educational
level. In 1985-86, for example, only 45 percent of all primary
students were girls. An estimated 75 percent of girls between the
ages of six and twelve were enrolled in primary school compared
with 94 percent of boys in the same age-group. Girls' primary-
school enrollment was lowest in Upper Egypt, where less than 30
percent of all students were girls. Girls also dropped out of
primary school more frequently than boys. About 66 percent of the
boys beginning primary school completed the primary cycle, while
only 57 percent of the girls completed all six grades. Girls
accounted for about 41 percent of total intermediate school
enrollment and 39 percent of secondary school enrollment. Among all
girls aged twelve to eighteen in 1985-86, only 46 percent were
enrolled in school.
The shortage of teachers was a chronic problem, especially in
rural primary schools. Under British rule, educated Egyptians had
perceived teaching as a career that lacked prestige. Young people
chose this career only when there was no other option or when it
would serve as a stepping-stone to a more lucrative career in law.
Despite improvements in training and salaries, teaching--especially
at the primary level--remained a low-status career. In 1985-86,
Egypt's primary and secondary schools employed only 155,000
teachers to serve 9.6 million pupils--a ratio of about 62 students
per teacher. Some city schools were so crowded that they operated
two shifts daily. Many Egyptian teachers preferred to go abroad,
where salaries were higher and classroom conditions better. During
the 1980s, the government granted 30,000 exit visas a year to
teachers who had contracts to teach in Arab countries.
Higher education expanded even more dramatically than the
preuniversity system. In the first ten years following the 1952
Revolution, spending on higher education increased 400 percent.
Between academic years 1951-52 and 1978-79, student enrollment in
public universities grew nearly 1,400 percent. In 1989-90 there
were fourteen public universities with a total enrollment of
700,000. More than half of these institutions were established as
autonomous universities after 1952, four in the 1970s and five in
the 1980s. The total number of female college students had doubled;
by 1985-86 women accounted for 32 percent of all students. In the
1980s, public universities--accounting for roughly 7 percent of
total student enrollment--received more than one-fourth of all
current education-budget spending.
Since the late 1970s, government policies have attempted to
reorient postsecondary education. The state expanded technical
training programs in agriculture, commerce, and a variety of other
fields. Student subsidies were partially responsible for a 15
percent annual increase in enrollments in the country's five-year
technical institutes. The technical institutes were set up to
provide the growing private sector with trained personnel and to
alleviate the shortage of skilled labor. Universities, however,
permitted graduates of secondary schools and technical institutes
to enroll as "external students," which meant they could not attend
classes but were allowed to sit for examinations and to earn
degrees. The policy resulted in a flourishing clandestine trade in
class notes and overburdened professors with additional
examinations. Further, widespread desire for a university degree
led many students in technical institutes to view their curricula
as simply a stepping-stone to a university degree.
Data as of December 1990
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