Teachers and physicians are to get a substantial financial and social boost. Reem Leila sees how this will come about The government has referred to the Shura Council a bill amending a few provisions of the Education Law 139/1981 which includes a new cadre of school teachers. Medhat El-Sayed, deputy to the minister of education, says the teachers will benefit from increased material and social stability, thus guaranteeing an on-the-ground improvement after their status on the two fronts was studied thoroughly by the authorities concerned. Education has become a national security issue and tops much of the world's agenda, being as it is one of the few ways to realise a better future for populations. "Basic education will also be elevated by applying national educational standards and school- focussed comprehensive reform," El-Sayed said. According to the bill submitted to the Shura Council, the government is to do more to support teachers and appreciate their role in turning out future generations. The government will, for example, guarantee a basic salary for newly appointed teachers of LE500, to increase throughout the term of employment to LE2,000. Teachers will also be eligible for an increase in the percentage of their incentives in order to help reduce private lessons, which has traditionally placed a financial burden on the Egyptian family. As such, teachers will be given training courses to improve their overall status. Accordingly, the government will allocate an extra LE1.6 billion to implement the new cadre system expected to go into practice the next scholastic year, El-Sayed added. Ashraf El-Hefni, general coordinator of the Teachers' Union, opposes the draft law, stating that although private school teachers make relatively low salaries, they are not included in the reformation since private schools, unlike public and governmental, are not obliged to apply the law's particulars. El-Hefni also said he anticipated that presenting the draft law to the Shura Council at this particular time will force the government to pass it quickly without thoroughly studying its consequences due to the shortage of time. At the same time a draft law for physicians is being prepared for presentation to the People's Assembly by July 2008. Hamdi El-Sayed, head of the People's Assembly Health Committee and head of the Egyptian Physician Syndicate, said that while it was true that the Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) was preparing a draft law to improve the status of Egyptian physicians, "we do not know whether it coincides with the bill we have prepared and submitted to the ministry." El-Sayed said the ministry did not present any bills to the syndicate on behalf of physicians. He said he doubted that officials at MOHP might directly submit the bill to the People's Assembly. "I demand the MOHP discuss with us the regulations of the draft law or else we, as physicians, will not approve of or accept it," El-Sayed said. MOHP's current budget is LE9 billion but double the amount is required for a makeover within the health sector. "Currently we are negotiating with the government to allocate an extra LE1.4 billion to apply what is stipulated in the bill concerning physicians," said El-Sayed. Wages are expected to increase by 50 per cent to help make equal what physicians are making in public hospitals and those in private establishments. "This will guarantee Egypt's patients better health services," he added. Egypt has been making serious moves towards political, economic and social reformation. The government has realised that continuing to base economic policies on old, unworkable and inapplicable systems whose weaknesses have become evident to the public will cause more harm economically, socially and politically. Accordingly, Egypt is introducing what is being called a cadre policy to be created for, among others, teachers and physicians. However, Gouda Abdel-Khaleq, an eminent economics professor at Cairo University wondered if introducing such a policy in various sectors will solve the problem. "It seems that all of Egypt requires new cadres but this will not solve the problem," Abdel-Khaleq said. There are vast differences in salaries in Egypt; accordingly the government is in dire need of an overall process of economic reformation. "The sum allocated from the government's general budget, more than LE200 billion for wages, is only LE51 billion, thus forming almost 25 per cent of the budget. The only solution is to increase this percentage to at least 50 per cent," Abdel-Khaleq said. If the government fails, "people will soon be leading an economic revolution. "This cadre policy is nonsense," Abdel-Khaleq said. "The government will not be able to implement it. It is not the solution. The solution is complete economic reformation."
