

Currently released so far... 64621 / 251,287
Articles
Brazil
Sri Lanka
United Kingdom
Sweden
00. Editorial
United States
Latin America
Egypt
Jordan
Yemen
Thailand
Browse latest releases
Browse by creation date
Browse by origin
Browse by tag
Browse by classification
Community resources
courage is contagious
Viewing cable 09CAIRO1158, EGYPT - FOLLOW-UP TO THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH PART I- WAY
If you are new to these pages, please read an introduction on the structure of a cable as well as how to discuss them with others. See also the FAQs
Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin |
---|---|---|---|---|
09CAIRO1158 | 2009-06-22 13:50 | 2011-08-24 16:30 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Cairo |
VZCZCXRO5789
OO RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #1158/01 1731350
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 221350Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2912
RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001158
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
STATE FOR NEA/ELA AND NEA/PPD
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV KISL KIRF EG
SUBJECT: EGYPT - FOLLOW-UP TO THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH PART I- WAY
FORWARD IN REACHING EDUCATION GOALS
¶1. (SBU) Key Points:
-- The President's historic June 4speech in Cairo converges with
efforts at post and initial discussions with the government of Egypt
to refocus Economic Support Fund priorities toward poverty
eradication, with special emphasis on improving education and access
to opportunity in Egypt.
-- Many of the President's other initiatives will also find
enthusiastic support here as well; we will address other
opportunities septel.
--Our initial discussions have identified three main educational
focal areas that will demonstrate the President's vision and find
ready partners in Egypt. First, we are prepared to expand
scholarships for study in the US for young Egyptians significantly.
Second, we intend to develop more extensive and effective programs
to match the skills of Egypt's youth with the marketplace. Third,
we want to address the overall quality of Egypt's educational system
by accelerating and improving Egypt's National Teacher Training Plan
and introduce other high impact initiatives aimed at creating
graduates capable of innovation and participation in the global
economy of the 21st century, with heightened focus on science,
technology, and mathematics skills.
-- In the short term we will work with funds already allocated to
expand our cooperation in education. We have at least $40 million
in FY2009 that can be redirected toward educational goals, and
anticipate over $100 million in FY2010 that can fund education
initiatives.
-- The President's call to support entrepreneurship, technological
development, and to create scientific centers of excellence can be
integrated into our overall education approach. We envisage
expanding public-private partnerships in pursuit of these goals and
also see a role for online networking to amplify success stories and
create new partnerships. We can start immediately by injecting
additional funds into the existing US Egypt Science and Technology
Cooperation Fund, a longstanding and successful mechanism for
bilateral scientific cooperation. This is an immediate and
effective way to spur innovation.
--------------------------------
Education: Key to Egypt's Future
--------------------------------
¶2. (SBU) The President's observation that "education and innovation
will be the currency of the 21st century" is nowhere more meaningful
than Egypt, a country that introduced modern educational
institutions and methods in the early part of the twentieth century
but that has sadly witnessed the deterioration of these institutions
and standards over the last sixty years. Egyptians across all
classes agree that Egypt's public education system is failing its
children and undermining its competitiveness.
¶3. (SBU) Egypt has begun to address its educational deficiencies,
but the size of the problem, lack of resources, and in some cases
weak political will have resulted in such slow, incremental progress
that no one has confidence in the government's ability to reform
this vital sector. Ongoing USAID programs support GOE efforts to
fix endemic problems, like illiteracy, with particular focus on
primary education and teacher training. Following the President's
speech, the Embassy received a letter of interest from Egyptian
Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit (full text septel) which outlined
interest in exchange programs and capacity building (including both
infrastructure requests and teacher training programs). We believe
given our experience and the GOE's interest, we see a window of
opportunity to build on existing momentum to accelerate educational
reform efforts and to offer bold, new high impact programs that
could attract additional support from the private sector as well.
--------------------------------------------- --
Expanding Exchanges and Increasing Scholarships
--------------------------------------------- --
¶4. (SBU) Mission Cairo currently supports several hundred successful
academic exchanges annually, but additional investment in
post-graduate scholarships will support our goals to create
measurable change in the Egyptian educational system over the next
three years. We believe that a major portion of so-far unobligated
$40 million in FY2009 ESF can jump-start our education initiative.
Some of our ideas include: (1) funding MA and Ph.D programs for
educators who will lead improvements in the teaching of science and
math in Egyptian schools; (2) expand the number of students in the
NESA Undergraduate Intensive English Language Study Program and
formally tie success in that 6-week program to the chance to
complete an undergraduate degree in the U.S.; (3)expand the
Fulbright-supported Community Colleges Initiative to focus on
decentralized school administration training in rural areas to
create a cohort of dynamic, jobs-oriented Egyptian school managers;
(4) enlarge the scope of successful English programs like the
English ACCESS Microscholarship Program targeting disadvantaged
youth aged 14 to 17, which has been extremely successful in
increasing English proficiency and exposing students to American
culture. In addition, expand the YES high school exchange program
to reach more students. (Note: We also envisage use of some of the
$40 million as seed money to develop initiatives described below to
realize other elements of our education approach: how to do teacher
CAIRO 00001158 002 OF 002
training more effectively; how to use online networking capabilities
to support educational reform; how to coordinate with existing
public-private partnerships in education to maximize their impact in
Egypt. End Note.)
--------------------------------------
Connecting Graduates to the Job Market
--------------------------------------
¶5. (SBU) Efforts to address the gap between students and potential
employers begins with dialogue. A number of successful, albeit
limited, programs already exist in this area, many involving the
private sector, and the Mission will explore if these can be
effectively expanded. The U.S. can encourage collaboration with the
private sector by establishing networks of business leaders,
Egyptian, American and international luminaries, civil society, and
foundations to address major impediments to youth employment. Such
a system would be open, encourage transparency and competiveness
while also encouraging a refocus of curriculum goals to meet the
labor market with private sector input.
¶6. (SBU) Egypt's current education system, established in 1952, was
designed to train bureaucrats to enter public service. In today's
job market these graduates are ill equipped to enter the workforce;
the private sector and GOE have expressed interest in remedying this
problem. We can bring US expertise in the area of curriculum
development particularly in science and technology. (Note: We have
faced challenges in working with the GOE on issues of curriculum
development in the past. It is a sensitive area but an important
one. End Note.) We will look to lessons learned from recent USAID
secondary education programs targeting training in agriculture
sector where jobs will make a significant impact on the lives of
those outside the society's elites. Focus on this sector helps
support the expanding production in agriculture based exports that
create income and support the Egyptian economy.
-----------------
Capacity Building
-----------------
¶7. (SBU) Neither adequately paid nor trained, instructors have been
known to leave their teaching position for better paid positions in
other sectors. To address these constraints, teachers will need
adequate living wages, on-going professional training, and possibly
exchange programs. Centers of Excellence for teacher training could
be established to upgrade the teaching profession. The MOE is
interested in such a model.
¶8. (SBU) One idea that we have is to refine Egypt's existing "model
schools" (public schools with better infrastructure and teachers)
further as sources of academic excellence and as laboratories for
teaching training and curriculum development. Upgrading their
English-language training, and science and math training in
particular could produce a steady stream of high-school graduates
who could compete for foreign scholarships and become the brain
trust of the next generation.
--------------------------------------
Fostering Innovative Approaches to Reform through an Endowment
--------------------------------------
¶9. (SBU) The GOE has been interested for some time in developing an
endowment mechanism that over time could become the legacy
institution of the U.S.-Egyptians ESF program. The GOE is pursuing
Public Private Partnerships in higher education as a sustainable
vehicle towards expansion and diversifying institutional funding.
Through a US-Egypt endowment, we can encourage this and similar
initiatives, such as student micro-loans, which exploit alternative
funding streams, permit autonomy, and engage the private sector. We
will begin discussions in July with the GOE on the form of a
possible endowment. We anticipate that negotiations for this
instrument could take well over a year.
¶10. (SBU) The Egypt Science and Technology Cooperation Fund is one
of the most active and productive bilateral relationship in OES.
Since its creation in 1995, there have been over 400 funded
scientific collaborations between American scientists and their
Egyptian counterparts. Our efforts have also led to the development
of the Egypt Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF), modeled
on our own National Science Foundation (NSF). Building on the fund
to create an independent, autonomous organization, better equipped
to manage scientific research, answers the President's call to
support both research of young scientists and to identify scientific
interactions that have strong commercial potential - leading to the
creation of new jobs.
¶11. (SBU) Extending the work of the Fund to educational
partnerships, likely on-line, that focus on science education,
particularly girls education and the environment are in line with
the goals set out by the President's speech and a natural
progression of this successful partnership.
SCOBEY