Reem Leila discovers ways of leveraging technology Minister of Education Yosry El-Gamal, Minister of Higher Education Hany Helal and Minister of Communication and Information Technology Tarek Kamel joined international education experts, civil society representatives, students, school teachers and university professors at a one-day conference to discuss ways of improving the education system. The conference, which met last Friday at the Smart Village, reviewed the Egyptian Education Initiative's (EEI) achievements so far in addition to honouring the school teachers, students and headmasters who have won awards under the scheme. On the periphery of the conference school students demonstrated their proficiency in computer use. The EEI, which started last May, has focused largely on pre-university education. According to El-Gamal reform of the education system has two broad objectives: to improve availability and quality, both of which can be achieved by the effective use of information and communication technology. The programme is developing low cost technology and during the past six months has improved and developed e-curricula for subjects as well as providing e-training to teachers and administrators in management and leadership skills. "Our goal is to ensure that Egyptian students are computer literate by the time they have finished preparatory school," explains El-Gamal. Out of a total of 2000 schools involved in the EEI's pilot scheme 1929 have been provided with 13 computers each. The number of schools provided with Internet connections has also been increased to 800. More than 820,000 students and 70,000 school teachers and administrators have benefited from the scheme. "Investing in education is investing in Egypt's future," said El-Gamal. For his part Helal stresses the importance of keeping up with technological developments in the higher education sector. Since EEI began it has introduced more e-learning and e- content to the Egyptian university system, establishing management information systems for academic staff and helping to provide quality assurance accreditation. Helal revealed four e-learning labs are currently being set up in Tanta, Zagazig, South Valley and Suez universities. The Faculty of Engineering at Ain Shams University has already been equipped with a wireless network connection and 360 university staff members and administrators, along with 220 students, have been received ICT training. In addition 135 professors have been trained to manage e-content development programmes. EEI is a public-private partnership (PPP) combining the Ministries of Education, Higher Education and Communications and Information Technology together with multinational companies and donors. According to EEI programme director Hoda Baraka, the partnership is paving the way towards building the knowledge-based society essential to Egypt's future prosperity. "The EEI focuses on several tracks: pre- university education, higher education, and lifelong learning," she says. With a budget of $80 million it is helping to implement a new strategy for learning and the education of professionals and to show that new technologies can make the training experience more affordable and accessible. "Egypt will continue to establish further e- learning competence centres to enhance workforce competitiveness in accordance with the evolving requirements of the global community." The illiterates of the 21st century, says Alex Wong, head of the Centre of Global Industries, will not be people who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. Wong believes that the EEI's objectives are enhancing teaching skills, guaranteeing quality assurance, increasing access to technology and helping to make learning available anywhere and at any time. "Today we celebrate the vision and leadership of the government of Egypt in this initiative. Together with our members and partners, we believe that it is through PPP such as the EEI that we can improve the state of the world," said Wong. The initiative also aims at developing the capacity of the local information technology industry to adopt innovative learning solutions in partnership with world-class firms, establishing a virtual learning community that will enhance educational performance and remove limitations and create opportunities for 21st century students to realise their full potential and leveraging national government commitment and corporate citizenship in building a PPP model of educational reform that can be exported and replicated throughout the Arab region.
