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DE RUEHEG #0302/01 0501023
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FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1677

UNCLAS CAIRO 000302 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.0. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID ECON PGOV EG
SUBJECT:  EDUCATION REFORM IN EGYPT. 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please handle accordingly. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  The poor quality of public education in Egypt is 
consistently cited by Egyptians across the board as a major 
impediment to both economic and political development.  Reformers 
agree Egypt needs an education system which encourages critical 
thinking, problem solving, teamwork and innovation, rather than rote 
memorization.  With this as a goal, the GOE has made unprecedented 
efforts in reforming its pre-university educational system over the 
past three years.  Moreover, despite the political risk, the GOE has 
welcomed low-profile international expertise, including from USAID. 
The sustainability of the reforms is uncertain given the size of the 
system; inherent resistance to change in a centralized, 
authoritarian political and educational system; the fragile 
political legitimacy of the regime in deviating from its implicit 
social contract with the Egyptian public; and the multitude of 
actors with the ability to interfere.  Benefits of the reforms will 
take some time to show up; impact can only be observed over the 
medium to long-term given the size of the system, and the breadth, 
depth and pace of the reforms.  The challenge will be to stay the 
course.  This cable addresses the situation in primary, preparatory 
and secondary education.  Although higher education was originally 
part of the reform agenda between the USG and the GOE, the lack of 
real commitment has made this a less favorable arena for reform. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
Background: This is Not a Pilot Project 
--------------------------------------- 
¶2.  (U) Egypt's pre-university education system is enormous.  The 
average school teacher makes LE 1,000 (about US$200) a month. At the 
pre-university level alone, the system enrolls over 16 million 
students and employs over 1.7 million workers, of whom around 1 
million are categorized as teachers. Total public spending on 
education has been high by international standards (5.9 percent of 
GDP and 19 percent of total public spending in 2002/03) and 
continues to increase in absolute terms, but is declining as a 
percentage of the overall GOE budget. Total private costs of 
education, most of which is for students in the public system (for 
private tutoring, textbooks, school fees, uniforms, supplies, etc.), 
amount to an additional 3.7 percent of GDP investment in education, 
and has been rising for a decade. 
 
¶3.  (U) As a result of such high public investment, during the past 
decade the government achieved increases in enrollment rates that 
would have been remarkable even without the increase in student 
population. Enrollment in basic education for both girls and boys is 
now nearly universal, and secondary and tertiary enrollments are 
rising. Moreover, as the World Bank's 2007 Sector Note on Education 
observed, the speed with which the gender gap in basic education was 
closed is not only impressive but historic. In addition, higher 
education enrollment is growing rapidly. Educational outcomes in 
Egypt are, on average, reasonable for Egypt's level of economic 
development, but less so given the high level of public and private 
investment.  Outcomes are also highly unequal, a fact that clearly 
reflects differences in socio-economic status across students, but 
also likely inequality in the quality of schools. 
 
¶4.  (U) Minister of Education Youssry El Gamal was appointed in 
¶2005.  A former dean of the Arab Academy of Science and Technology 
in Alexandria, he has a Phd from George Washington University and 
had previously served as the civil society leader on USAID's 
pioneering Alexandria Education Reform pilot.  One of his first 
priorities as minister was to develop a national education strategy 
for 2007-2011.  This strategy, developed with USAID's technical 
assistance, was designed in a broad-based, participative manner, 
engaging donors and civil society.  In 2006, USAID agreed on a 
policy reform agenda with El Gamal that addressed policy and 
institutional impediments to improving educational quality.  The 
agenda, which formed the basis of a cash transfer program signed 
that year, included: 
 
-- establishment of a professional Teacher's Cadre and the 
conversion of administrative positions to teaching ones; 
-- reduction in the number of textbooks; 
-- the piloting of the elimination of the use of the ninth grade 
exam, that had historically been used to track two-thirds of all 
students into technical/vocational secondary education, in three 
governorates; 
-- increased private participation in the publishing and production 
of textbooks to improve quality; and, 
-- the introduction of public/private partnerships in the 
construction and long-term physical management of public schools. 
 
¶5.  (U) Additional priority reforms of the GOE not in the cash 
transfer program include school accreditation; decentralization of 
school finances and administration to the district level; and, 
rethinking the secondary leaving exam and higher education 
admissions process. 
 
Problems: Crowding Out the Poor/Staving Off Fundamentalism 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
¶6.  (SBU) The GOE's education reform program is designed to address 
three fundamental challenges that the current system poses for the 
government and the economy.  First, the private tutoring that 
students need to succeed in the system to compensate for overcrowded 
classrooms and for poor teaching drives out the poor.  Second, the 
Muslim Brotherhood is increasingly influential within the education 
sector in both public schools and a growing number of private 
schools in providing a more fundamentalist education.  Finally, 
there is a significant disconnect between the skills of graduates at 
every level and the needs of the private sector, as evidenced by 
Egypt's low ratings on educational quality in economic 
competitiveness reports. 
 
Where's the Beef/Teacher? 
------------------------- 
¶7.  In 2006, the Minister of Education had 1.7 million employees. 
Of those, 700,000 were service workers and civil servants spread 
across the country.  The remaining 1 million were divided almost 
equally between teachers and administrators, with one administrator 
for every 1.2 teachers.  This is one of the highest teachings: 
non-teaching ratios in the world.  By comparison, Jordan has 4 
teachers for every administrator, and the OECD average is 8:1.  Also 
Egyptian teachers are the least paid in the region (compared to GDP 
per capita).  Under the existing pay structure, the administrator 
jobs were the only route to higher pay for teachers, who were 
earning starting salaries of LE 1,000.  Finally, teacher/student 
ratios on average are 40:1 in 50 percent of the school, but are 
reported to reach 80 or 100:1 in the slum areas of Cairo. 
 
¶8.  (U) To address these imbalances, the GOE pushed the Teacher's 
Cadre law through Parliament in 2007.  The new law in its first 
phase gave teachers a fifty percent increase in their base salary, 
but required them to take qualifying exams.  Once the law was 
passed, most of the nearly 500,000 administrators declared 
themselves teachers to benefit from the pay hike.  Despite strong 
resistance from the teachers to the idea of competency examinations, 
in January 2008, 830,258 out of 1,064,742 persons eligible to take 
the tests were actually examined in their pedagogical, Arabic 
language, and subject matter expertise.  In total, sixty-two 
different tests were administered to these teachers based on the 
grade level and specialty.  Eighty-five percent passed and, based on 
their scores and years of experience, have been assigned to one of 
five levels in the new Teacher's Cadre. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) USAID worked closely with the ministry to develop, pilot 
and publicize this examination.  This was a monumental task which, 
while not perfect, was completed on time and sent a strong signal to 
teachers of the GOE's intent to improve teaching quality.  At the 
same time that the testing went forward, the ministry is also 
substantially reducing the number of administrators at individual 
schools, in order to get more and better qualified teachers back in 
the classroom teaching. 
 
Textbooks: the Back Door to Curriculum Reform 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶10.  (SBU) Given the political sensitivities of USG engagement in 
education in Egypt, especially relating to curriculum and textbook 
reform, USAID has not played a significant role in these areas.  The 
Ministry of Education has its publishing operation, and the GOE owns 
two additional public sector publishers.  Textbooks produced by 
these operations have been a consistent source of corruption, 
however, as publishers and ministry bureaucrats benefitted from 
excessive purchases of expensive, poor quality textbooks.  The World 
Bank's 2005 Sector Note observed that while student enrollment rose 
only 3% between 1999 and 2005, textbook production increased by 15 
percent and the budget for textbook printing increased by 63 
percent.  The rising demand for books is due to the unregulated 
Government process for authorizing the provision of materials to the 
school system. In 2006, the ministry produced 450 million new 
textbooks for over 16 million students, expending about LE 1 
billion.  Based on the World Bank analysis, Minister El Gamal 
decided to take the textbook industry on and has since cut the 
number of new textbook purchases to 335 million.  He has answered 
criticism on this issue, especially from newspaper printing houses 
fearful of losing reliable income from printing textbooks, by saying 
that the savings have been reinvested in better quality texts. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) At the same time, and with USAID support, El Gamal agreed 
to outsource some textbook publishing and production to the private 
sector.  With USAID-funded technical advice, the MOE is revamping 
its textbook procurement rules and increasing private and hopefully 
international participation in publishing and production.  Contracts 
for new Arabic, math and science textbooks for grades 1-6 are slated 
to be awarded in June with delivery thereafter.  We expect these new 
textbooks will more accurately reflect what are considered to be 
fairly decent Egyptian national curriculum standards and 
international best practices. 
 
Decentralization: Modernizing the State A La NDP 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
¶12.  (SBU) Since taking office in 2004, the Nazif government has 
focused on improved service delivery in the areas of health, 
education, social services, transportation and housing in an effort 
to mitigate the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood's informal yet 
effective social safety net services.  The NDP appears ready to 
decentralize government services, but with the goal of energizing a 
new generation of National Democratic Party activists, rather than 
with the aim of giving average Egyptians an opportunity for greater 
participation and increased local governance.  Because of the 
minister's activism, and the government's focus on education, the 
GOE selected this sector as the leading edge for decentralization. 
Observers are concerned, however, that efforts to improve the 
quality of education by decentralization will get lost in the 
political drive to decentralize for the purpose of broadening and 
strengthening the ruling party itself.  To maintain the focus on 
reform, the GOE is relying heavily on USAID-funded technical 
assistance to run pilot decentralization programs in three 
governorates.  Gamal Mubarak and the Policy Committee of the 
National Democratic Party are closely guiding and monitoring this 
process. 
 
Tracking: The Warehousing of Egyptian Youth 
------------------------------------------- 
¶13.  (SBU) Egypt has a very high proportion of secondary students in 
technical and vocational education, compared to some other countries 
in the Middle East and North Africa as well as other low middle 
income countries.  Sixty percent of Egyptian students who complete 
preparatory (middle) school are tracked to technical/vocation 
education at the secondary level.  Serving more social and political 
than educational or economic objectives, these schools are 
overcrowded, do not graduate students with basic literacy and 
numeracy, and are poorly connected to the need of employers.  As a 
2006 study noted, these schools are perceived as a last educational 
chance for low performing students to enable them to complete their 
basic education.  The technical/vocational curriculum does not 
reflect international best practices, which espouse a core 
curriculum at the secondary level, combined with practical 
application for all secondary students. 
 
¶14.  (U) World Bank-funded reforms to transform 205 secondary 
commercial schools have not been successful because of the lack of 
curricular and assessment reform.  USAID agreed to support pilot 
programs in three governorates that eliminated the use of the 
results of the 9th grade examination as the basis for tracking 
students into general secondary and secondary tech/voc education. 
While the change in the first year was modest, the trend from 
tech/voc schools to general education in the second year has been 
dramatic.  On average, the enrollment of students in general 
secondary in the three pilot governorates of Alexandria, Marsa 
Matrouh and Dakahlia rose from 11% to 54% from 2007/08 to 2008/09 
with a concomitant decline in tech/voc enrollment.  Other 
governorates are expressing interest in adapting this new policy. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) More broadly, the GOE needs to rethink the goals of its 
secondary education system and higher education admissions in order 
to align it with market needs, produce employable youth, and ensure 
equitable access to quality education.  President Mubarak launched 
such a rethink with his Secondary Education/Higher Education 
Admissions Conference last March.  We understand Prime Minister 
Nazif has agreed to delink secondary education leaving exam results 
with admission to higher education.  This would turn the twelve 
grade exam into a completion exam.  The Ministry of Higher Education 
would then have to find other criteria upon which to base admissions 
into institutes for higher education. Considerable additional work 
is needed on all of these proposals; at this time the GOE does not 
have the technical expertise to do this. 
 
School Construction:  You Can Only Lay So Much Cement 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
¶16.  (U) In response to World Bank findings of significant 
inefficiencies in school construction, USAID and Germany's aid 
agency, KfW did a study for the GOE citing the need for fundamental 
reform.  One result has been a GOE decision to outsource 
construction and management, over a fifteen year period, of fifty 
public schools to the private sector.  In cooperation with the 
Ministry of Finance and USAID technical assistance, the ministry has 
prepared and plans to award a public-private partnership contract in 
April.  The success of the project will depend on the availability 
of long-term financing, not guaranteed under current market 
conditions. 
 
Accreditation: What's the Incentive? 
------------------------------------ 
¶17.  (SBU) The GOE has decided to use accreditation as a mechanism 
to improve the quality of basic and higher education.  Egypt's 
parliament passed legislation creating an accreditation system for 
universities in 2006 to be managed by the newly created National 
Accreditation and Quality Assurance Authority (NAQAA).  Its 
management was named in early 2008.  USAID's School Team Excellence 
Awards Program (STEAP) has substantially raised awareness of 
national educational standards through a nationwide competition 
among primary schools.  However, NAQAA, which the NDP leadership is 
using to push education quality in schools, appears more punitive 
than motivational in its approach to school improvement, and is not 
a long-term solution for pre-university education. 
 
The Shadow Cabinet 
------------------ 
¶18.  (SBU) There is strong public consensus that Egypt's education 
system is broken and quality must be improved.  There are, however, 
a number of actors in the process, limiting Minister El Gamal's 
effectiveness and room for maneuver.  They include First Lady 
Suzanne Mubarak, Gamal Mubarak and NDP Policy Committee member 
Hossam Badrawi, Moushira Khattab of the National Council of 
Childhood and Motherhood, NAQAA's Magdy Kaseem, and Minister of 
Higher Education Hani Helal.  The inability of the government to 
collaborate and speak with one voice remains a challenge.  On a 
positive note, Mrs. Mubarak sees the need for strong private 
financial support and engagement in school-based reform. 
Increasingly, it appears this group also understands the role of 
broader civil society engagement in education.  However, Mrs. 
Mubarak's approach seems more patronizing and controlling than 
consultative and participative, and unlikely to foster needed 
reforms. 
 
School-Based Reform: A Glimmer of Hope 
-------------------------------------- 
¶19.  (U) USAID, the Canadian International Development Association 
and UNICEF have made solid gains in supporting the Ministry of 
Education in its efforts to promote school-based reform through 
changes in pedagogy, assessment, school management, parent 
engagement and early grade reading, among others.  Donors are 
supporting pedagogical changes in over 400 schools to engage 
students more actively in their learning.  USAID now has three years 
of data on its Critical Thinking, Achievement and Problem-Solving 
(CAPS) test and is using the results to change how teachers teach 
and assess their own assessment tools.  The Canadians have a 
participative school leadership program in Assiut, Sohag and Qena. 
Parents in these donor schools are running for school board 
elections and volunteering.  The USAID-funded STEAP program rewards 
good teachers based on results of a national competition in all 
16,000 primary schools, thereby supporting broad-based reforms in 
pedagogy, school management, and student achievement.  USAID has 
delivered school libraries totaling almost 25 million books to all 
39,000 public K-12 schools in Egypt.  Reading camps are springing up 
to address the critical challenges related to early grade reading of 
Arabic and literacy in general in Egypt.  USAID recently convened 
donors and civil society, including entities working with Gamal 
Mubarak and Mrs. Mubarak, to share best practices regarding 
school-based reform.  The challenge now is to scale up and diffuse 
innovations across the system. 
 
Higher Education:  The next challenge 
------------------------------------- 
¶20.  (SBU) Higher education was originally part of the reform agenda 
between the USG and the GOE; however, the lack of real commitment to 
reform in 2006/2007 in terms of greater autonomy for public 
universities, and deregulation of private universities, combined 
with the current Minister of Higher Education Hany Hilal's fixation 
on a socialist planning model and greater control has made this a 
less favorable area for reform.  A recent study also confirmed that 
despite several million dollars of World Bank investment in higher 
education technical institutes, this area remains very difficult and 
these institutes amount to little more than warehousing Egyptian 
youth to reduce unemployment and stave off political instability. 
USAID is working with private sector leaders as they champion 
reforms in higher education as a wedge to reforming this critical 
area and modeling innovative programs with faculties at Cairo and 
Alexandria University. 
 
¶17.  (SBU) COMMENT:  One cannot speak of democracy or sustained 
economic growth in Egypt without bumping up against the constraints 
of the educational system.  It is big, overstaffed with 
underqualified employees, corrupt and overly centralized.  It is 
driving out the poor and warehousing youth.  It has multiple masters 
with competing political agendas.  But there are glimmers of hope. 
The GOE should be commended for taking political risk associated 
with implementation of the Teachers' Cadre personnel reforms. 
Unlike his predecessors, Minister of Education El Gamal has welcomed 
discreet, high quality expert technical assistance.  He and his 
circle are dedicated to decentralization and are willing to 
experiment.   His ministry has made tough decisions regarding 
textbooks, school construction and the tracking of students.  At the 
same time, micro reforms at the school level are taking root and 
spreading to other schools and districts.  The stakes for Egypt in 
addressing the shortfalls of the system in terms of economic and 
political development are enormous, but results will mainly be seen 
only in the medium- and long-term.  The challenge to the reformers 
is to stay the course.  SCOBEY