A homeschooling story from Egypt

(English version below.)

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فى نفس الوقت فى مكان اخر من القاهره هانى الجمل خاف على ولاده لايضيعوا فى متاهات التعليم . لقى المدارس بتقتل حاجات كتير فى الاولاد ,كل يوم من سته ونص لاربعه ونص فى المدرسه من المعادى للتجمع . الولد بيرجع معندوش طاقه ولا وقت انه يلعب ويحل الواجب و يذاكر وبقى ينموا فىه حته انه عايز الاجابه على الاسئله بسرعه بالمعلقه عشان معندوش لاوقت ولا طاقه انه يدور بنفسه على الاجابات , ده غير انه بيقعد طول الوقت فى المدرسه سلبى بيسمع بس مش بيعمل حاجه والمناهج نفسها فيها مشاكل كتيره جدا.

هانى -عنده ولدين احمد فى اولى اعدادى وكريم فى تالته ابتدائى- اخد القرار انه يطلع ولاده من المدرسه ويعلمهم من البيت. طبعا الولاد كانوا فى منتهى السعاده بالقرار ده و دلوقتى بقالهم اقل من سنه بره المدرسه بيتعلموا عن طريق نظام امريكى calvert school ده بتمتحن اونلاين وبكده يطلع للولد شهاده لوحب يدخل مدرسه او يكمل فى التعليم النظامى. طبعا الكلام ده فى مخاطره بس محسوبه الى حد ما . دلوقتى الاولاد بيتعلموا وبيدورا بنفسهم وبمساعده “عاطف رستم” - صديق هانى وبيقوم بتعليم اولاد هانى وبنته كريمه -و بيديهم فرصه اكتر انهم يتمرنوا رياضه و يحتكوا بالناس اكتر وده مش ماثر على حياتهم الاجتماعيه بره المدرسه بالعكس الاولاد بيتطوروا على المستوى الانسانى اكتر بكتير مما كانوا فى المدرسه

.دلوقتى الولد الكبير مهتم بالبرمجيات و بيحاول يقرا ويشوف محاضرات عنها و بيساعده هانى انه يروح شركه برمجيات يساعده فى تجريب البرامج كمستخدم ويشوف عمليه البرمجه بتتم ازاى.الاولاد قابلتهم بعض المشاكل فى الاول فى تغيير اسلوب الدراسه بسبب مستوى اللغه الانجليزيه بس بيتقدموا بسرعه كويسه .

فكره التعليم من البيت على حد قول هانى فى ناس كتير طبعا خايفين زى الثوره كده او معندهمش وقت انهم يفكروا فى حل للمشكله نتيجه للساقيه اليوميه اللى هم ,على الجانب الاخر فى ناس كتير مهتمه تعرف اكتر و عايزه تعرف ازاى ممكن تعمل كده مع اولادها.

ده كان احد المشاهد من مجتمع التعليم فى البيت فى مصر اللى بينموا كل شويه وفى اتجاهات مختلفه ونظم تانيه كتير
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Hany Elgamal was afraid that his sons would be lost in the “maze” of the educational system in Egypt. He found out that his kids spend a lot of time in school -from 6:30 to 16 :30 going from Elmaady to Eltagamo’ everyday and they come back exhausted with no energy or time to even study , do their homework and play and they became accustomed to have the easy answer for the questions and not to search for the answers themselves because obviously they have not time or energy to do so, this besides the fact that every day in school he is a sitting passively listening to teachers and the curriculum itself has lots of problems.

So Hany –with 2 kids ahmed in the 1st preparatory stage and karim in the 3rd primary stage– took a daring decision to quit school for his kids and start homeschooling.Of course the kids were over the moon with this decision and now it has been less than a year for them homeschooling and learning through the calvert school curriculum and this program you can take a test online and get a certificate so if the student wants to go back to other institutional education so it is a big risk for them but it is somehow a good calculated risk .

Now Hany’s kids are homeschooling with the help of “Atef Rostom” –Hany’s friend who is responsible for guiding and helping the kids and his daughter karima in their studies– and this gave them more time to play sports and interact with the “real world” more ,even Ahmed –Hany’s older son– is interested in mobile and computer apps and tries to see lectures and read about it and Hany is helping him by getting him access to a programming company where he tested some of their apps as a user and saw how the process of programming is done. The Kids faced some problems at first about the change in the way of learning and mainly because of the english language level but they are improving in a good pace.

The idea of homeschooling in Egypt –in the words of Hany– is scary for some people like the idea of revolution and for others they don’t have time to think for a solution for this problem because of the daily tiring work they do in order to make a living. but on the other hand there people interested in the idea and always asks how to do it.

This was a another scene in the homeschooling community in Egypt which is growing and have different directions and systems.

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sad news

2 days ago Hany among 25 other people were sentenced to prison for 15 years . !!!

Hany besides homeschooling his children is an active member in a political party and active in the political sphere.

I don’t think we can do something am just sharing the info as I thought u should know the other part of the story .

as we are living a severe injustice phase in Egypt Hany will just be an addition to the increasing no of people in prison ( lots of other activists groups are working on the political prisoners ) …let’s just hope it won’t continue another 15 years (there should be some retrials or something I hope )

Sorry to hear this :frowning:

Is there anything that can be done from outside Egypt to help? Or does foreign intervention just make it worse?

probably make it worse

there are activists groups and organizations working on these issues (they are the experts in this ) , probable foreign interventions in these cases make it even worse and can be used for more media propaganda against these activists …

Same situation in Morocco!

It has been 6 years now that i live in Morocco and I initially came to the country to work for one of the most prestigious schools of Marrakech. It is considered the best schooling option in Morocco but is highly reserved for the upper class children whose parents can afford it. After teaching there for about a year I got completely disappointed in their system and since then I was trying to find alternative schooling institutions in Morocco, especially since my baby girl was born.

My friend in Morocco just created a homeschool in the foothills of the High Atlas mountains and I do hope my daughter will be able to attend it!

We do need to start small and collaborate!

"start small and collaborate "

quoting u in "start small and collaborate " so that we can be giants together (edgeryders spirit)


Hayati homeschool seems like a good place for children , especially the tent idea is brilliant :slight_smile:

again it is some how similar in Cairo parents organize "study groups " or daily learning sessions together (for people in the same neighborhood ) and organize some trips also to different places in Egypt , as we don’t have such scenery next to the city .

There are actually lots of alternatives too!

I have heard about initiatives of parents who organize a home school and contribute each in a way they can: like teaching, cooking, cleaning, driving to/from school, etc

I think this is a fair way for homeschooling in communities as children do need to communicate with other children, as opposed to homeschooling alone in one’s home which can get really tough.

Is there a session about homeschooling in the events? I couldn’t find it somehow. Would love to attend and maybe co-host?

not yet :slight_smile:

Till now there is no session about homeschooling or alternatives, am not sure if @labanita is planning to host one, may be u can co-host it together.

Also is the bar camp idea on the first day still on @noemi may be have something informal about the topic.

I am quite interested myself and waiting actually to have some discussions about this issue.

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hello Hazem and Anna, I will definitely be around, and we can definitely talk alternative education, too - but I am honestly not too much online these days … I will arrive to Tblisi o Tuesday morning, and be around all three days. Let us meet and decide! Or go ahead and schedule and count me in. I do not live online, but have a real life, too :slight_smile:

Right on!

Hey Ulrike, I agree with you, we do not have enough time any more to prepare a session online and of course we are busy with our real lives, so the best is to meet up in Tbilisi and maybe improvise something!

See you all soon in Tbilisi!

Hi all, just joined the conversation

Hi everyone

i was doing some research on home schooling as I’m hoping to travel with my kids. I’m looking to spend a few years in Egypt as I’d really like me and my kids to learn Arabic. I’m planning to home school them so if there’s any information that you may have il be grateful if you’d share with me.

Perhaps Hazem has some links…

@Rashida hi! Welcome to Edgeryders, and good find. I missed this post a while ago when it was produced by @Hazem. So sorry to hear Hany was sentenced. Has anything improved since then Hazem? This tells us how education everywhere in the world is going through revolutions of sorts.

Hazem if you have some links to help please share?

And for Rashida: if you would like to tell us more about your journey we’d be happy to read you. We also hope to be working again with communities in Egypt pretty soon! Here is where you can post it. This is one about myself, since we’re getting to know each other :slight_smile:

Home schooling is consistent with the OpenVillage concept. You want some autonomy in education, too. So +1 for the session. @bridget_mckenzie also has some experience.

hany and atef now are working on a community learning center, hopefully he is going to share what’s happening with us soon. :slight_smile: but in general the “alternative education” scene is growing in Egypt.
or in hany’s words " people everywhere are reconsidering educational systems, even the good functioning ones, so we have more urgency as we kinda don’t even have one in Egypt :smiley:

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Wait. How does that square with him being sentenced to prison for a really long time?

He was lucky, got out with a presidential release. kinda random I guess ( releasing 100 prisoners during a Ramadan or the feast ) others who were with him in the same trial are still in prison.

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hey @rashida I am interested to know how are you doing right now, did you get involved in any of the homeschooling communities in Egypt, how is it going with

I think this is super relevant for @bachar_khattar - Maybe you can post something about what you want to set up so Hazem can connect you guys?

hi everyone, I know this conversation was a long time ago however if you have any updates on the home schooling in Egypt I would appreciate if you share it here. thanks

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