Egypt’s Minister of Education and Technical Education Reda Hegazy affirmed that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi attaches great importance to developing educational system and building the human being and the Egyptian identity, adding that this is the main pillar for achieving a comprehensive social and economic renaissance and creating a generation that is aware and capable of advancing the future of the country.
The minister’s statements came during his interview with the Middle East News Agency editors that was conducted by board chairman and editor in chief Ali Hassan.
The minister said that the Egyptian state, under the directives of President Sisi, places the issue of advancing education at the top of its priorities, programmes and policies, explaining that the education development plan aims to change the entire system to shift from education to learning.
The role of students, he added, is not limited to receiving information only, but also to benefit from the system of integrated education that provides them with life skills that shape their intellectual structure and behavior in order to achieve Egypt’s Development Vision 2030.
He said that there is clear support on the part of the political leadership in order to advance the education system in all its elements, with guidance on the need to fill the deficit in teachers or trainers, referring to the competition to appoint 150,000 teachers over a period of five years, at a rate of 30,000 teachers annually. The teachers are selected through a test in basic components: educational, behavioral, linguistic and communication.
He added that the ministry is keen to interact with the media, believing in its influential role in society, and that human development is not the responsibility of the ministry alone or a specific minister, but rather with the participation of all state agencies, pointing out that decisions regarding the educational system are not taken individually, but rather through technical committees.
On the efforts made to prevent exam leakage and to address the phenomenon of mass cheating in some schools, Hegazy stressed that no leakage of exams will occur, “because we are facing this issue in co-operation with the competent authorities, and the ministry will also be able, if the student photocopied the exam paper, to identify him within few minutes”.
With regard to the executive position of the system for developing pre-university education curricula, Reda Hegazy affirmed that the development and reform of curricula is a fundamental pillar within the strategic plan to reform the education system, and in line with Egypt’s development vision 2030.
In addition, it comes in response to a societal desire and regional and global changes with the aim of improving the quality of life of our children and preparing generations capable of competing in the labor market locally, regionally and globally.
Hijazi touched on the services provided by the Ministry of Education to students with special needs, pointing out that the Ministry worked to support their integration in the various stages of pre-university education, so the number of integrated students increased from 3,697 in the academic year 2012-2013 to 114,157 students this academic year, while the number of integrated autism spectrum disorder students reached 4,504.
Regarding the Decent Life initiative and its contribution to the development of schools, Hegazy said the percentage of completion in replacing, expanding, renovating and implementing projects to establish new schools and build new classrooms exceeded 96 per cent.
He added that the expansions included 1,131 schools with a total of 15,334 classrooms, with the aim of providing access to the largest number of students and reducing classroom density.
