Education in Egypt

public education system in Egypt

• Kindergarten for two years.• Primary school for six years. • Preparatory school for three years.• Secondary school stage is for three years,for

ages 15 to 17.• Tertiary level for four ,five , six years .

Types of Schools

o Government Schools:• Arabic Schools• Experimental Language Schools

o Private Schools:• Ordinary schools• Language schools• Religious Schools• International Schools

Government Schools

• Arabic Schools: provide the governmental national curriculum in the Arabic language

• Experimental Language Schools, teach most of the government curriculum (Science, Mathematics and Computer) in English, and adds French as a second foreign language in Preparatory Education. An Advanced English language curriculum is provided in all Educational stages.

Private Schools

• Ordinary schools, their curriculum is quite similar to that of the government schools, but the private schools pay more attention to the students' personal needs and to the school facilities.

• Language schools, teach most of the government curriculum in English, and add French or German as a second foreign language. They are expected to be better than the other schools, because of the facilities available, but their fees are much higher.

• Religious Schools, are religiously oriented schools as Azhar schools or Catholic schools.

• International Schools, are private schools that follow another country's curriculum, like a British, American, or French system, and the degrees earned from them get official certification from the Ministry of Education, to be eligible to enroll in Egyptian universities, such schools offer even better facilities & activities than regular private schools with higher fees, but are criticized to be providing a much easier education level compared to the general curriculum.

Education stages in Egypt • Pre-Primary education:

Between ages 4 and 6, children can attend voluntary kindergartens with a pedagogical program. Up to 25% of Egyptian kids do this in the late 2000's

Primary educationEducation within the public program is compulsory for all children between 6 and 15 years of age, 9 years. It is divided into two sections, first 6, then 3 years. In many areas enrollment is far from 100%, and there are rural areas where some 50% of all eligible children do not attend school. For Egypt in total, about 95% attend primary school.There are both private and public, about 8% attend private schools, which in many cases offer superior quality to public schools. Reports show that quality of education is quite variable, many public schools are good, some most inadequate.Drop out rates are high, and only 50% of children complete the first 6 years. More girls quit than boys, early marriage remains a reason for this even now that minimum legal age to marry has been set to 16.Completion of the last 3 years of primary education results in the Basic Education Completion Certificate or the Certificate in Vocational Basic Education, used for entry into secondary schools.

Secondary educationMost public secondary education programs requires the completion of 9 basic years of primary education, and as many as 70-80% continue on to secondary. There is a relative equilibrium between the percentage of boys and girls at secondary level.There are 2 directions: General; and Vocational and Technical. About 1/3 of secondary pupils follow the General, 2/3 the Vocational and Technical.General secondary, which prepares for university studies, lasts 3 years. The concluding exam and degree is called Certificate of General Secondary Education, which is one of the requirements for admission into universities.Vocational and technical, which is a complete degree preparing for work life, lasts 3 to 5 years. These schools are divided into Industrial; Commercial; and Agricultural. Many vocational programs are offered for children that have not completed the 9 years, the numbers attending these programs are quite high.

Higher educationToday, Egypt has 34 universities, of which 18 are public. Most of the growth in the number of universities happened before 1990, when there already were 14 public universities. Presently, more than 25% go to university, but only half graduate. About 40% of Egyptian students are women.Public universities are free, the only fee paid are the rather modest registration fees.The quality of Egyptian universities varies extremely. Some offer good education, some poor. The best universities meet high international standards. The largest university is the Al-Azhar, with 350,000 students is one of the universities making a claim on being the oldest in the world, as it was founded in 972. It was until quite recently an exclusively religious university, today it has included a slightly wider array of programs. The foremost of universities is Cairo University, founded in 1908, with 230,000 students.Institutions have little to say in defining the curriculum and educational programs. Presently there is an undergoing program to reform higher education.Since 2002, 12 new private universities have been established, these come as a response to the demands for specializations as well as for better quality. These universities require tuition fees, making them available only to the affluent part of the Egyptian society.Arabic is the language of instruction in humanities, social studies, education, law, commerce, economics and political sciences, information, social service, tourism and hotels. English is widely used in the faculties of medicine, pharmacology, dentistry science and engineering.

Educational crisis• untrained teachers• obsolete teaching practices• Families are increasingly in despair to find schools that adequately prepare their

children for the thanawiyya ‘amma, the national exam that determines whether a student can move on to a college education.

• Rather than moving to fix the failing educational system, Egypt’s turn to liberalism stimulated the development of a hierar chy of increasingly expensive private schools.

• Privatization extends even into the free, public schools, where poorly paid teachers offer private tutoring for a fee, often in public school buildings. Many teachers make the bulk of their incomes through such les sons, and parents often fear that to refuse to pay for private tutoring means their children will be less competitive than their peers.

• I am sure that many of us noticed that many of today’s kids cannot do the math without a calculator like many of us older people. Many also can’t read, talk or write as well either. Not all, but a lot more than before. I get comments every day about this problem. We used to be among the best in high school education four decades ago. We are now 34th in math in the world. Our children have been dumbed down for decades by an antiquated education system, that tracks neither the money spent per school, nor the educational results that they accomplish for our tax money, per month or quarter.

•I am sure that many of us noticed that many of today’s kids cannot do the math without a calculator like many of us older people. Many also can’t read, talk or write as well either. Not all, but a lot more than before. I get comments every day about this problem. We used to be among the best in high school education four decades ago. We are now 34th in math in the world. Our children have been dumped down for decades by an antiquated education system, that tracks neither the money spent per school, nor the educational results that they accomplish for our tax money, per month or quarter.

• overcrowded classrooms• Lack of helping the students to understand

and use everyday technology which is essential in our current environment .

• The examination system in Egypt depends only on the students ability to memorize in any subject and not to develop their own of thinking , develop more mental abilities and modern ways of problem solving .

• Egyptian schools does not qualify their students into working as team and exceeding the students presentation skills .

Done by : Asser El kady

Hesham Hossam Hossam El din Mohamed

Abdelrahman Mostafa zaki Khaled Hamdy El marakeby

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