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Private education? What does this mean?
Private schools? Private lessons? Private university? the Egyptian citizen doesn’t recognize these words now after five years from the educational revolution which started with a demonstration from some parents who couldn’t be silent anymore about the situation of the educational system in egypt. They decided to demonstrate trying to occupy the schools to express their refusal to the current situation. What appeared to be a small demonstration at first touched the willingness of most parents to develop the educational system and children joined the demonstrations asking for their right to a proper education…
These citizens were calling for collaboration with the government and getting rid from the private sector, they asked for using the old abandoned buildings and change it to small schools ,they proposed investing the money spent on the private lessons or on the private schools’ fees in the enhancing the public educational sector ,ensuring that the public schools are public property for all the citizens of Egypt .
“ Free the education by occupying the education” was the slogan of this revolution and the government actually listened to the people’s demands and as a start pilot project the “Naseria “ school abandoned building was turned into a small school again . This simple idea provided money to build new schools from scratch and provided job opportunities for teachers who were waiting for a chance to get a job.
This was the end of private education in Egypt and today all the children of Egypt enjoy their right in the free public education.
Background discussion: Challenges in Education in Egypt
The main challenge of education in Egypt consists in the following: not every child that can go to school is able to do so – not enough schools and not enough space in schools – and teachers are usually underpaid/unqualified.
An interesting - and one that happened few decades ago - and impactful initiative would be for parents come in and they start a small school, organize initiatives. In Upper Egypt, there are already alternative schools - the challenge there and in the rest of the country might be to find and appropriate all empty spaces like mosques, abandoned factories, etc which are currently under-utilised and can be relatively easily converted to schools.
Currently, most people/parents afraid to speak up and express their frustration about public schooling and hoping it will change; it’s a usual practice to have teachers beat kids in public schools, allegedly in the name of discipline.
Due to a confluence of some political and cultural factors, education in Egypt started degrading since the end of 1980s and beginning 1990s. People at that time were also looking at schools that fit better for their kids.
تعليم خاص؟! يعنى ايه؟
دروس خصوصية، مدرسة خاصة، جامعة خاصة، كلمات لا يتذكرها المواطن المصرى الان بعد مرور خمس اعوام على الثورة التعليمية التى بدات بمظاهرة بعض الاهالى الذين لم يعدوا يحتملوا السكوت على ما وصل اليه نظام التعليم فى مصر. قررت مجموعة من الاهالى التظاهر فى محاولة منهم لاحتلال المدارس و التعبير عن رفضهم للوضع الحالى. ما كان يبدوا كمظاهرة صغيرة في البداية فجر رغبة جميع الاهالى فى تحسين وضع التعليم فى مصر و انضم الاطفال للمظاهرات للمطالبة بحقهم فى التعليم.
المواطنين كانوا يدعون للتعاون مع الحكومة، و الانقطاع عن الاعتماد على القطاع الخاص. طالبوا باستخدام المبانى المهجورة و تحويلها لمدارس صغيرة. و تم اقتراح استثمار المبالغ الهاءلة التى كانت ستدفع للدروس الخاصة او فى المدارس الخاصة و توجيهها للمدارس الحكومية لتحسين القطاع العام، موءكدين ان مدارس الحكومة ملك عام لجميع افراد الشعب.
“حرر التعليم باحتلال التعليم” كان شعار الثورة، و بالفعل قامت الحكومة بالاستماع لمطالب الشعب و كبداية تم تحويل مبني مدرسة الناصرية فى وسط البلد الذى كان مهجور لسنوات طويلة لمدرسة صغيرة من جديد. و قد وفرت هذه الفكرة البسيطة اموال هاءلة كانت ستستخدم لبناء مدرسة جديدة من الاساس. و منحت فرص عمل لجميع المدرسين و المدرسات الذين كانوا ينتظرون دورهم فى طوابير التعيين.
و كانت هذه بداية نهاية التعليم الخاص، و اليوم يتمتع جميع اطفال مصر بحقهم فى التعليم العام الحر
هذه المقاله هى واحده من نتائج نقاشاتنا المستمره حول الاشياء التى لا نحبها فى المنظمات الكبيره التى تعمل فى مصر وكيفيه التعامل معها.يمكنك الانضمام لنا فى تطوير رؤى- جمعيه قابله للتنفيذ بناء على خطوات ملموسه- بمشاركتنا تجربتك الخاصه هنا http://goo.gl/wuZrWp
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