Dina Ezzat reports on attempts to promote human development as the means towards quality education Low salaries, inadequate facilities, overcrowded classrooms and uninspiring text books; teachers in government schools across Egypt know exactly what they mean. On Saturday, at the Heliopolis Library, these and other concerns related to the quality of education were debated at length by teachers and teacher trainers. The gathering, hosted and sponsored by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, was part of the follow-up to a project launched in July aiming to improve the quality of education, educators and the educated in three socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods: Al-Salam, Al-Nahda and Al-Marg. Because they fall within Greater Cairo, the three neighbourhoods are already better off than other government schools in Upper and Lower Egypt. Yet to judge by the documentary shown during the two-hour gathering on Saturday evening the three districts' schools prior to their renovation as part of the 100 Schools Project provided a depressing venue for the education of children who already face deprivation in many other aspects of their lives. In contrast, the documentary showed how the renovated schools had cleaner classrooms, greener and bigger courtyards. It also showed how one-time storage space could be turned into music and art rooms, provide an environment in which children, who, as Mrs Mubarak acknowledged, "are mostly living in conditions that do not offer them much room for play and creativity", could develop their creativity. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly on the fringe of the "Our Children are the Apples of our Eyes" event, many of the teachers that work in the over 50 schools that have already been renovated agreed that the aesthetic improvements had been beneficial. They said computer rooms and libraries had been introduced in most of the schools that had benefited from the 100 Schools Project, and reported "much cleaner bathrooms". However, many teachers argued that the improvements, however essential, do not automatically improve the quality of education. As one teacher said, when a classroom is packed with some 90 pupils who are not particularly stimulated by their textbooks and who are eager to exercise social activities that they are denied due to their living conditions at home, it becomes almost impossible for any teacher, no matter how dedicated, to get "the little devils" to pay sufficient attention to their lessons. This, teachers say, is not to mention the tough task of getting these pupils to show creativity and develop critical thinking "as the ministry (of education) has been requiring". In the words of one teacher, "so far things look better but they are not actually much better in terms of education as a process. It still depends on the personal qualities of the pupils and their socio-economic background whether they will be able to learn." In a brief statement made during the Saturday event Mrs Mubarak recognised the many and multiple difficulties included in the process of improving "the conditions of education in 100 out of some 40,000 schools across the nation". "We all know that this is a very difficult task that requires much more than painting the classrooms and there is an awareness on the side of both governmental and non- governmental sectors of the huge task with which teachers in our schools are entrusted." Improving the quality of education in Egypt, Mrs Mubarak, Minister of Education Yosri Al-Gamal and many of the teachers participating in the Saturday event agreed, is a long-term project that will take resources -- human and financial -- as well as determination, to implement. But they also agreed it is a project that has to be pursued sooner rather than later in order to avoid any further degradation of the quality of education in Egypt. As such, the '100 Schools' project, Minister Al-Gamal insisted, is not just about painting the classrooms or installing a few computers but about teaching teachers how to teach. Teachers working for the selected 100 primary schools undergo a 14-week training programme to hone their English and computer skills prior to introducing them to the latest techniques in teaching. In the following three years training will be extended to the teachers from preparatory and secondary schools in the three neighbourhoods. "Teachers will be given incentives to take part in the training programme and the experience they gain will qualify them for prompt promotion," Al-Gamal told a group of sceptical-looking teachers. He added that schoolteachers across the nation will be offered better salaries, compatible with huge tasks with which they are entrusted, sooner rather than later. The amelioration of the working conditions of teachers and the school curricula, the minister of education said, should eventually contribute to bringing an end to the suffering of teachers, pupils and, by extension, parents. While the target date for the completion of the '100 Schools' project is 2009, no specific date has been set for the introduction of laws improving the salaries of schoolteachers.
