The Effect the Arab Spring on Education in Egypt

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Introduction

The wave of Arab revolutions (also known as Arab spring) started in December 17, 2010, in Tunisia and later spread to other Arab countries. The Arab Spring spread to Egypt in January 2011 (Andersson & Djeflat, 2012). Hosni Mubarak’s regime had lasted for 30 years, and had enjoyed remarkable stability over the period. Although there had been instances of protests prior to the Arab spring, mass protests led by the Muslim Brotherhood against Mubarak’s regime started on 25th January, 2011. After 18 days of protest, Mubarak was forced to step down on 11th February 2011 (El-Bendary, 2013). The protests were mainly caused by Mubarak’s authoritative approach to governance that was supported by unsustainable economic and political system. Many Egyptians aspired for a new government that would restructure the economic and political system that had become ineffective (El-Bendary, 2013). When Mubarak took office in 1981, his government helped to revive education system in Egypt through massive investments. During his tenure, his government attached importance to education and recognized that every person has a right to education. However, Mubarak’s authoritative approaches created more problems to Egypt’s education system, which had become acute by 2011 (El-Bendary, 2013). Many of the problems that the education system has been facing were caused by poor policies of Mubarak’s government. As a result, the quality of education in Egypt suffered a major backdrop during Mubarak’s era. As such, Egyptians aspired for a new government that would come up with better policies that would provide adequate support to the education system and come up with solutions to the existing challenges.

The government of Muhammad Morsi that took over from Mubarak promised to solve the problems. Morsi’s government made some reforms to education before June 2013, when he was ousted by the military after mass protests against his authoritative moves (El-Bendary, 2013). However, the education system required massive reforms, most of which Morsi’s government was unable to achieve. The interim government that took over from Morsi has continued supporting reforms in Egypt’s education system, although the achievement has not been very significant due to some limitations. The purpose of the essay is to explore the effects of the Arab Spring on Egypt’s educational system. In particular, the paper examines the challenges that the educational system in the country has been facing and the impact of post-Mubarak leadership policies on education. Before engaging on the main topic, the paper presents an overview of education in Egypt from a historical perspective. The paper explores the role of religion and previous rulers on education.

Overview of Education in Egypt

The current status of the Egyptian education system has been impacted by several historical factors. Different leaderships and their policies have had the biggest impact on Egyptian education system. Another major factor that has had a major influence is the Islamic religion. Education is Egypt has a very long history. As early as 2686BC, writing was one of the major aspects that were used to express Egyptian culture and to transfer culture from one generation to another (Hefner, & Zaman, 2007). The period was followed by Unification of the Lower and Upper Egypt, giving rise to the rule of Pharaohs. The Age of Pharaohs lasted for many centuries and ended in 525BC after invasions. During the period, writing was still part of the culture of Egyptians (Hefner, & Zaman, 2010). As early as 323BC, one of the first and most extensive libraries in the World was already established in Alexandria, Egypt. People with interest in learning about Egyptian culture and historical issues accessed written materials from the library. The library remained as the main destination that offered scholars opportunity to learn in a well organized setting, until 30BC, when the Romans invaded Egypt (Hefner, & Zaman, 2010). The Romans managed to conquer the Egyptians and to rule over them until 640AD, when the Arabs invaded Egypt. The Arabs conquered the Romans and exercised influence over Egyptians in social, cultural and economic dimensions. The Egyptians dropped Christianity that had been introduced by the Romans and shifted to the Muslim Culture. Egyptians started adapting to the Arabic language Brought by the Arabs (Hefner, & Zaman, 2010).

Remarkably, the Arabs brought in new influences in education in Egypt. Prior to the entry of the Arabs, there were rare cases of housed formal education in Egypt. When the Arabs arrived, they established formal housed education, which was taught in temples (Hefner, & Zaman, 2007). The subjects that were taught in the temples included the arts, medicine and sciences. In 972AD, the first university in Egypt was established, called the Al Azhar University. The university followed a system that was based on Islamic religion. In particular, the methodology of teaching in the university was based on the principles of the Quran (Hefner, & Zaman, 2007). The system that was established then laid a ground for the religious education that is still present in Egyptian schools today. Egypt was ruled by dynasties from 868 to 1260, when Turkish tribes invaded and took over ruled until 1517. Unlike the Islamic rulers, the Turkish rulers placed little emphasis on education. In 1517, the Ottoman Empire conquered the Turkish rulers and ruled until 1798. Like the Turkish rulers, the Ottoman Empire did not put emphasis on education. The French invaded Egypt and Napoleon exercised his power between 1798 and1801. Although the French exercised their power over a short period of time, Napoleon sensitized the Egyptians about the importance of education. As a result, various several leaders emerged after Napoleon, who took education seriously (Hefner, & Zaman, 2010).

The first leader who put emphasis on education in Egypt was Muhammad Ali, who ruled from 1805 to 1848. One of the most remarkable contributions of Ali in education was the creation of a ‘dual education system.’ The ‘dual education system’ still exists today (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). He managed to revive the Islamic education system that had suffered severe backdrop under the previous rulers. Ali had a vision for Economic growth of Egypt. However, he realized that the Islamic education system did not support economic growth. As such, Ali decided to create a parallel secular system that could support his visions for economic growth. He relied on advisors and the European models to create the new system. The parallel system was fully funded by the government. Ali started a higher education institution that mainly offered education to the leaders and military elite (Cook, 2001). Philosophy was the main course offered in the higher education institution. The education offered in the institution was designed to support the economy of Egypt and to develop future leaders. After successfully establishing the higher education system, Ali created the primary and secondary education systems as well. The main aim of establishing the primary and secondary education systems was to develop knowledgeable citizens who would support economic growth. During the period, Ali also came up with many other economic plans. For instance, the Suez Canal was opened during his leadership. The opening of the canal made Egypt strategic important in the global economy. Ali took advantage of the situation through establishing dominance of Egypt in the Suez Canal.

The Ottoman and British saw Ali’s economic plans as a threat to their economic plans. As a result, their moves impeded Ali’s efforts to support the economic growth of Egypt. Eventually, the Ottoman, the British and other countries signed agreements that broke up the dominance of Egypt on the Suez Canal (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). As a result, the influence of Ali on the Economy of Egypt declined. The economy of Egypt started declining, making the second education system created by Ali obsolete. Leaders who came after Ali did not put as much efforts as his. They did not commit a lot of resources on education like Ali.

Ismail was the next leader who put some efforts on education in Egypt. Ismail led Egypt from 1863. One of his remarkable efforts was re-opening of the “Committee of Public Instruction,” an agency that was established by Ali but closed due to lack of financial support. In addition, he added support of the government to education, but his efforts were hampered by economic challenges that hit Egypt, leading the country’s economy to become bankrupt. The challenges that faced Egypt during the period paved way for the entry of the British in Egypt. One of the significant aspects of the British entry in Egypt is the British Occupation that started in 1882. Egypt was colonized by the British, led by Evelyn Baring, who ruled the country (Sayed, 2006). When Baring (also called “Lord Cromer”) took power, his focus was to re-establish the economy of Egypt. In other words, he did not pay attention to education. In fact, his intentions were to develop leadership that world enable the British to stay in power. In order to support his plans, one of his strategies was to keep the locals illiterate to minimize their ability to overthrow the British rule. At the same time, they created a few loyal Egyptian elites who helped to support their power structure. The Egyptian elites supported the British rule because they were indebted to the British for their own success and social standing (Sayed, 2006). The British colonial rule had a major impact on the Egyptian population. To start with, the population rose from 7 million to around 11 million people between 1882 and 1907. At the same time, the colonial leadership did not invest in education (Cook, 2009). As a result, only 5 percent of Egyptians were literate by 1922. Although Egypt was given independence in 1922, the lack of investment on education by the British rule had a major negative impact on the overall societal development.

Immediate leaders after independence did not put much effort on education. One of the main reasons is that they inherited the policies that had been established during the British colonial rule. Significant support for education started in 1950s, through the efforts of Taha Hussein. Hussein was a blind Minister of Education. Hussein believed that every individual had a right for education and thus, he fought for literacy relentlessly (Mazawi, 2002). He increased financial support for education and established free education for all. Hussein is hailed as the leader who made a major step in reviving education in Egypt during the 20th century. Gamal Abdel Nasser, who took leadership in 1954, continued supporting education. Nasser’s leadership focused on providing support to social welfare organizations. During his tenure, he attached importance to free education for all. He established programs that included students from other countries. Nasser’s government provided support to both secular and Islamic education. Nasser’s government guaranteed employment to all college graduates (Mazawi, 2002).

Anwar Sadat, who had served as minister in Nasser’s government, shifted Egypt’s priorities during his tenure. Sadat led Egypt from 1970 to 1981. His government focused on liberalizing economic policies. To support his goal, he established a program called Open Door Policy. Sadat’s government did away with guaranteed government employment for college graduates. The move led to a high level of unemployment for college graduates. Although Sadat’s government opened many new higher education institutions, the salary for the teaching staff remained very low. As a result, lecturers started looking for employment in other countries (Starrett, 1998).

After Sadat’s assassination in 1981, Mubarak took over leadership in 1982. Initially, Mubarak made lucrative plans to support education. In his plan named “the Grand Revival,” Mubarak laid out strategies to revive education, among other social welfare aspects. Although he made some efforts top support education initially, his controversial authoritative regime has created more problems than benefits to country’s education system.

The Key Challenges and Expectations after the Arab Spring

There are many pressing challenges that the Egypt’s education system has been facing. One of the key challenges is the lack of adequate infrastructure (Acedo, Adams & Popa, 2012). The population rate in Egypt has been growing rapidly over the last three decades. By 2011, the young people below fifteen years constituted 32 percent of the country’s population. As a result of high growth rate of young population, enrollment rates in schools at all levels have been rising constantly (Acedo et al. 2012). However, the government of Mubarak did not respond appropriately to the issue. In particular, Mubarak did not invest adequately in adding school facilities to counter the problem. As a result, the number of secondary and primary schools available were fewer than the demand, by the time Mubarak was ousted. The problem led to overcrowding in classes. In addition, the existing public schools had poor facilities. Many public schools did not have essential facilities such as laboratories, art rooms, playgrounds and music rooms. Lack of quality facilities in schools has, for a long time, affected the performance of both the students and the teachers. The students have been aware that the teachers are not to blame for the lack of quality education in schools (Acedo et al. 2012). In a fieldwork conducted by Sarah Hartmann in 2011, students explained that lack of adequate facilities in schools was the major factors that affected their performances ((Acedo et al. 2012).

When the new government led by Morsi came to power in 2011, one of main agendas was to solve the problem through adding more school facilities to accommodate the high number of students enrolled. Precisely, Morsi’s government injected additional capital to build more primary and secondary schools, as well as higher education institutions. In addition, the government of Morsi injected more capital aimed at adding facilities and improving the existing one in schools (Alayan, Rohde & Dhouib, 2012). However, Morsi adopted authoritarian leadership style that led to a backdrop of the economy of Egypt after Mubarak. As a result, the government budget has been under strain. In the year 2011-2012 budget, for instance, there was a deficit of 8.6 percent. As a result of limited resources, the government has been facing difficulties in giving adequate support to the schools.

Another major challenge that the Egyptian school system has been facing is the lack of quality teaching in public schools and dependence on private tutors. The main reason for the poor quality of teaching is the lack of adequate remuneration to the teachers. By 2011, teachers employed by the government at all school levels hardly earned more than US$281 (LE1, 600) a month (Alayan et al., 2012). The low pay rates highly reduced the morale of teachers and consequently, this led to low quality output. In addition, the government has not been supporting teachers’ training appropriately. The problem was compounded by the fact that Mubarak’s government employed unqualified teachers to curb shortages in the public schooling system. After the entry of a new government in 2011, the ministry of education made improvement in teachers’ training as one of the agendas to be met (Topi & Tucker, 2014). However, the there has been little in the achievement of the goal so far. Currently, majority of the teachers, especially in the primary and technical education are untrained (Topi & Tucker, 2014).

The poor quality of education in public schools and lack of adequate support to the teachers has led to the rise of an ‘informal sector’ that aim at filling the gap that is left by the public schools. A report produced by the Egypt’s Central Statistics and Mobilization Agency in 2011 indicated that the locals spent 60 percent of their investment in education on private tutoring. The problem with private tutoring is that it is expensive and thus, it leaves students from poor families in disadvantaged situations, in relation to their classmates. In this regard, the formal education sector has been contributing to the social stratification and inequalities in access to quality education (Alayan et al., 2012). In addition, the teachers employed in the formal education sector have been engaging in private tutoring to support their salaries. Engaging in private tutoring has led to conflict of interests; supporting the students to excel in the public schools would mean that they would not seek for additional services from the private tutors. As a result, the teachers have been reluctant to provide quality education within the public schools.

In her 2011 fieldwork study, Hartmann noted that the teachers in many primary and secondary schools did not bother to provide their teaching services the whole lesson. Hartmann noted that some teachers just introduced subjects superficially in classes and expected to provide elaborate details during private lessons. According to Hartmann, the private tutoring has also led to high rate of absenteeism in schools. Hartmann learned that the main cause of private tutoring is lack of adequate compensation to the teachers. According to Hartmann, most primary school teachers by 2011 were paid between US$17.41 and 59.69 a month. The teachers expected the new government after Mubarak to improve their salaries. Morsi’s government took the issue seriously and promised to increase the payments for teachers at school levels. During the year 2012, for instance, the Morsi’s government awarded allowances to teachers employed by the state. As a result, teachers are allocated allowances that are equal to their basic salaries. However, the government was initially reluctant, and the increment only came after a series of protests by the teachers. The interim government that took over after Morsi has also put the increment of salaries of teachers as one of the major priorities (Topi & Tucker, 2014).

Another major challenge that has been facing Egyptian educational sector is over-centralized control. The government of Mubarak recognized that every citizen has a right to education. As such, the government has been exercising a dominant role on education with the aim to enhance accessibility and affordability to all citizens. In 2003, Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin, the then minister of education explained that the main reason for the high level of control was to ensure a minimum common level of socialization and enculturation (Harrigan & El-Said, 2009). This explains the fact that the government of Egypt has been spending a lot of funds in education. A report produced by the World Bank Report in 2002 indicated that the government of Egypt spent 8.8 per cent of GDP on education. The average spending was higher than in OECD countries, which was 4.6 per cent of GDP by 2002 (Harrigan & El-Said, 2009). The ministry of education has been exercising dominance in education through issuing specific lesson plans for schools to follow and through controlling the curriculum. As a result of the tight control, the teachers are unable to teach materials that are not included in the lesson plan. In addition, they have limited ability to structure the progress of their classes to fit specific contexts. The ministry of education has also been providing specific learning materials to be used in schools. The teachers are not allowed to use materials that are not approved by the state. The content of the learning state-approved materials have been highly politicized, and are designed to inculcate specific understandings and values ((Harrigan & El-Said, 2009). Egyptians expected the post-Mubarak government to reduce the state-control over education offered to students. When the government of Morsi came to power, the first step in reducing government dominance was to remove content in materials that focused on passing specific political understandings and values to the students. In March 2012, for instance, the ministry of education announced that it was going to cut roughly 20 percent of the content in education materials at all levels, which paid attention to the legacy and achievements of the National Democratic Party (Topi & Tucker, 2014).

In addition to controlling the content of education, the government of Egypt has been giving standardized and centrally administered state examinations. All students are required to pass the exams in order to progress t the next level (Acedo et al., 2012). Sometimes, the exams are also politicized. Despite the promises of the new government to reduce direct control over the content of education, Morsi’s government continued influencing the content of exams. For instance, in end-year 2011 exams, students were given a compulsory question in which they were required to write a letter thanking Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for the support during the revolt that started in 25th January. Although the interim government that has taken over after Morsi has not been engaging in such activities, it has done little so far to reduce the influence of the government on the content of education and exams. There is need for additional changes to the education system to reduce such control to the content of education (Topi & Tucker, 2014).

Another major problem facing the education in Egypt is increased focus of learning for examinations. In particular, pedagogical approaches and methods to teaching in Egypt are problematic. During Mubarak’s tenure, the teaching methods and approaches shifted focus from the subject matter, to rote-learning and memorization. In other words, the focus has been on passive learning, with little focus on the fundamental impact of education to the students. The problem has been compounded by the lack of adequate facilities, equipments, library books and other learning materials. Consequently, students in many cases lack both educational and physical stimulus. The lack of engagement on subject matter has long-term impact on their levels of attainment and concentration (Alayan et al., 2012). The students themselves have noted the weakness and have been critical of the teaching approach. In an interview conducted by Noha El-Hennawy on students who had moved from national primary school in Egypt to international primary school in Canada, the students recounted that they appreciated education in the international school more than the national school. The students stated that in the national schools, their role was only tom go home and memorize facts, whereas in the international school, they had to concentrate and revise (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). The students stated that in the national school systems, they had to learn so many things that they would not need in life, whereas in the international school, they were taught staff that they could retain, apply in practical situations and convey to others. Such testimony indicates that the pedagogical approaches in Egypt have intense focus on examination, rather than the implications of the education in the life of students. The teachers just rush through the materials given by the ministry of education, just to meet the curriculum requirements. After that, they just emphasize on the materials that they believe is likely to appear in exams (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). Although government of Morsi focused on improving the quality of education, there has been little focus on improving the teaching approaches (Topi & Tucker, 2014).

Another major problem in the Egyptian education system is negative attitude of the general population towards vocational training. In Egypt, vocational training is perceived as a reserve for the students who fail to get enough marks to qualify for higher education in public universities. There is obvious implication on the capacity and quality of output of the students who pursue vocational training. Unfortunately, 2010 OECD report indicated that one of the major challenges affecting Egyptian education system is inability of the students who pursue vocational training to pursue further studies in universities (Hefner & Zaman, 2010). The students who take vocational training are ‘tracked out’ and are given limited opportunities to access higher education in universities. However, students from wealthy families are able to escape the problem through continuing with education in private universities and qualifying for universities spaces. Unlike the wealthy, who are able to use their financial ability to access university education, students from the disadvantaged families are forced consider vocational training and low-skilled labor as necessary. They do not have better choices. The negative attitude towards technical and vocational education leads the government to give little support to it relative to the other education institutions (Hefner & Zaman, 2010). As a result employers in Egypt have been complaining due to lack of candidates with specific skills to work in certain sectors and fields. At the same time 80 percent of the available jobs in Egypt required vocational education and training (Hefner & Zaman, 2010). Mosrsi’s government recognized the problems and thus, reforming vocational education and training was one of the gains of the government when it came to power. As such, the government of Egypt has been working to support programs such as Training System Reform Programme and Technical and Vocational Education, which had been launched in 2005 but lacked adequate support from Mubarak’s government. The two programs were created to provide training for students in areas such as tourism, services, manufacturing, and construction. In addition the Morsi’s government partnered with sectoral associations and the local employers to offer training facilities for agroindustrial, garment and construction industries. By 2013, the programs had trained 50,000 persons (Topi & Tucker, 2014). Despite the efforts, vocational training is not fully reformed and it requires additional support. In addition, the government ought to remove the limitation that is placed on individuals who have acquired vocational training from accessing higher education in universities (Topi & Tucker, 2014).

Another major that has been facing educational system is the presence of social inequalities. The lower-level private schools have significant differences from the public schools. In most cases, the private schools have some advantages because they are subjected to fewer state-imposed constraints (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). In the private schools, teachers have autonomy to develop lesson plans in response to the needs of students. In most cases, the number of students in classes is smaller than in the public schools (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). Also, many private institutions have better and adequate facilities. As a result, the concentration of education by the students in the private institutions is higher than in the public institutions. In short, the private institutions are better equipped to prepare the students to meet the demands of the job market. Unfortunately, the private schools are only accessible to students from wealthy families. Children from poor and disadvantaged families have no other choice than to enroll in the public schools. The implication of the differences is social inequality, since those who are able to access education in private schools have better chances of getting jobs (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). By the time Morsi took leadership, Egyptians expected new reforms in the educational sector that would reduce the inequality in access to quality education and jobs. Although the new government promised to improve quality of education in the public schools, no significant progress has been achieved so far. One of the major reasons for lack of achievement is the fact that the government has been facing budget constraints and has been unable to provide adequate financial support to educational sector (Topi & Tucker, 2014).

Lastly, the higher education in Egypt has been facing challenges, including mismatches between outputs and the job requirements in the employment market, inability to attract adequate funding and lack of strong research output and capacity. Egypt has 18 public and 17 private universities. Just like the public primary and secondary schools, the public universities rely entirely on government funding (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). During the wake of revolution in 2011, funding challenges facing higher education institutions in Egypt increased sharply due to the economic backdrop that hit the country. The lack of adequate funding also affected research capacity and output, which also relies on funding. In addition, the quality of education has been falling due to lack of adequate modern facilities, hence lowering ability of the students to get jobs. Precisely, the students from some private universities have better chances of getting jobs than students from public universities (McCulloch & Crook, 2013). However, the new government that took over from Mubarak took the issue as a major priority. The government increased the budget targeted on higher education, but the process of raising the funds took a period of six months. In addition, the government sought assistance from donors (Topi & Tucker, 2014).

Conclusion

In conclusion, education in Egypt has a very long history that can be traced from many centuries back. Initially, education in Egypt took place in informal setting. Teaching in formal settings was introduced by Muslims, and took place in Temples. However, early formal education was grounded on the principals of the Quran. Islam religion supported education for a long time, and is credited for supporting the emergent higher education. Various rulers emerged later, some of whom supported education, while others did not. Ali is remembered as one of the leaders who gave adequate support to education. One of the remarkable periods when education in Egypt suffered a backdrop was during the colonial Era, under the rule of the British. Education received adequate support many years later after the British rule, under leaders who fought relentlessly to support literacy. Mubarak’s regime, which started in 1980s promised to revive educational system, and actually used a significant percentage of the countries budget on education. However, Mubarak’s authoritative regime led to many more problems that highly affected the quality of education offered in public schools at all levels. The major challenges that the education system in Egypt has been facing include strains on infrastructure, over-centralized control, inadequate access to funding, presence of social inequalities, focus on learning just for examination, dependence on private teachers, poor teaching quality and negative attitudes towards vocational education and training. During the revolution that took place in 2011, the general public aspired for a new government that would solve the above challenges. Although the government of Morsi and the succeeding government have made a few changes and increased investment in the education system, the achievement has not been significant. One of the main reasons for the lack of significant achievement is budget constraint as a result of economic backdrop after revolution. The current government that took over from Morsi needs to be more vigilant in supporting and reforming education system to make it more beneficial to the citizens.

References

Acedo, C. Adams, D. & Popa, S. (2012). Quality and Qualities: Tensions in Education Reforms:

Tensions in Education Reforms. Rotterdam: Springer

Alayan, S., Rohde, A. & Dhouib, S. (2012). The politics of education reform in the Middler East: