EGYPT

AME EDUCATION

SECTOR PROFILE

Education Structure

Public and private schools offer a secular curriculum. The Al-Azhar schools, a quasi-governmental system, offer a religious curriculum.

Source: World Bank 2005

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Source: World Bank 2005, World Development Indicators 2009

Education Structure

Education Configuration and Enrollment Percentages % Net Enrollments

Classification Level/Grade Ages 2004 2007

Pre-primary Pre-school 4-5 16%* 17%*

Pre-university

Primary, grades 1-6 6-11 98% 96%

Lower Secondary, grades 7-9 12-14 82% N/A

Upper secondary, grades 10-12 15-17 29% N/A

Vocational secondary, grades 10-12 15-17 37% N/A

TertiaryUndergraduate study 18-22

33%* N/APost graduate study 22+

*Gross Enrollment Rate

The public system serves about 85% of all Egyptian students, primary to tertiary, and is free at all levels.

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Population Structure

Egypt’s Population Structure

Source: Assaad and Barsoum 2007, EPDC 2009

• 63% of Egypt’s population is below the age of 30.• By 2015, the 30-64 year group will be 37%. Young people need good education opportunities now to become effective workers later.

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Relevant Policies:

• National Plan for Education for All 2003-2015 http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/format_liste_en.php?Chp2=Egypt

• National Strategic Plan for Pre-University Education Reform in Egypt 2007-2012 http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/format_liste_en.php?Chp2=Egypt

• Higher Education Reform Strategy 2009 http://www.heep.edu.eg/pmu-report.htm

Education Policy

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Education Access: Pre-university

Source: World Bank 2005

• Primary level is almost full.• Lower secondary level grew at the fastest rate from 1996-2004 (4.15% average change).

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Education Access: Tertiary

Source: World Bank 2005

• Egypt has invested heavily in higher education. • University enrollment increased more than 11% from 1996-2004

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Education Access: Gender

Source: World Bank EdStats

• Girls have nearly reached the same enrollment rates as boys.• Egypt has been very successful in attaining gender parity at this level.

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Education Access: Gender

• Gender parity has been reached at the secondary levels.• Girls represent 48% of total student numbers at the pre-university level.

Source: World Bank 2005

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Education Quality: Teachers

Source: CIDA 2009

A new teacher professional development and promotion system was adopted in 2007.

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Education Quality: Class Density

Class Sizes of 40 or More Students in Public Primary Education, Selected Rural Governorates/Metropolitan Areas 2003/04

Source: World Bank 2005

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Education Quality: Testing

• Egypt ranked 37th out of 45 participating countries on an international achievement test in math and science.• Egyptian students scored lower in the 2007 test with an average math score of 396 (406 in 2003) and science score of 408 (421 in 2003).

Source: Ministry of Education 2006, World Bank 2007

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Education Equity: Gender/ Geographic Disparities

Metropolitan Boys Girls Gap

Alexandra 112.5 110.5 2

Cairo 112.7 113.6 -0.9

Lower Egypt

Dakahia 89.2 93.1 -3.9

Sharkia 84.9 90.2 -5.3

Upper Egypt

Beni Suef 91.2 83.1 8.1

Fayoum 86.3 79.6 6.7

Minya 95.8 85.0 10.8

Assiut 86.5 81.2 5.3

Suhag 73.5 73.8 -0.3

Source: World Bank 2005

% Lower Secondary Net Enrollments by Sex and Selected Governorates 2003/04

Gender and geographic disparities in lower secondary enrollment are evident at the governorate level.

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Education Equity: Income Disparities

Source: World Bank 2007

Gender, wealth and geographic disparities in school attendance remain, especially at the secondary and tertiary levels.

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Education Equity: Academic Disparities

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004

General Secondary 30.5% 32.3% 33.6% 33.2% 34.3%

Vocational Secondary 69.5% 67.7% 66.4% 66.8% 65.7%

Total Students 1,419,861 1,447,030 1,551,518 1,724,454 1,804,835

Percentage Enrollments at Secondary Education

Source: World Bank 2005

• A two-track system at secondary level (grades 10-12) streams about 60% of students into Vocational Education. • Tracking is based on 6th and 9th grade test exams scores.

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Education Efficiency: Expenditure

Source: World Bank 2007

Public Spending on Education in MENA as Percentage (Most Recent Year During 1999-2003)

Public spending on education is high by regional and international standards.

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Education Efficiency: Expenditure

Source: World Bank 2005

Egypt Public Education Expenditure Pattern 2002

Tertiary level absorbs 28% of the budget to service 2 million students while pre-university levels receive 70% to support 16 million students.

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Education Efficiency: Repetition

Source: World Bank 2005

• Repetition rates have seen a steady reduction, particularly impressive

at the general secondary level.• Repetition at preparatory level remains an issue (average 8%) as it does in Grade 4 and 5 primary levels (both grades average 5.6%).

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Education Efficiency: Repetition

Source: World Bank 2008

Egypt is not as efficient in reducing repetition as other countries which spend similar amounts of public money on education.

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Education Efficiency: Staff Ratios

The teaching to non-teaching/administrator staff ratio at pre-university levels is about 1:.8, representing an highly inefficient use of public funds.

Education Workforce:1.4 million personnel in the system (2005)

Teaching 795,000 (57%)

Non-teaching 89,000 (6%)

Administrators 516,000 (37%)

Source: World Bank 2007

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Education Efficiency: Staff Ratios

Source: World Bank 2007

The growth of teaching (2%) and non-teaching staff (3.6%) is outpacing the growth of the relevant student populations (1%) at all school levels.

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Education Efficiency: Private Tutoring

• Theoretically illegal and unacknowledged by the government but a booming business given the low salaries of teachers, high class densities and poor teaching quality, and competitiveness of national exams.

• Private tutoring expenditure in the aggregate: about 4% of GDP, almost equal to government expenditure on education (about 6%).

• 40% of students, 60% at secondary level, receive private tutoring (est.).

• The richest quintile spends 10 times more than the poorest quintile giving them a greater advantage in accessing more desirable education options.

Source: World Bank 2007, Assaad and Barsoum 2007, Personal email communication 2009.

A rampant private tutoring system exists.

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Education: Conclusion

Successes:• Access: Near universal primary enrollment.• Quality: Existence of a teacher professional development system. • Equity: Approaching gender equality system-wide. • Efficiency: High levels of public expenditure on education.

Challenges:• Access: Geographic and wealth disparities in school enrollment especially at

upper education levels. • Quality: High repetition rates at specific grades and level. • Equity: Inequitable academic division of students at secondary education. Inequitable spending patterns on education levels. • Efficiency: Highly uneven staff ratios. Existence of a rampant private tutoring

system.

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