An educational system that is essentially divorced from the job market is the root of all evils in the Egyptian economy, writes Samia Farid* Shihata In the months since I returned to Egypt after 30 years abroad, my work in social development has brought me face to face with the total inadequacy of our educational system. I am more convinced than ever that if we continue to ignore this problem we place our country at great peril. Growing youth unemployment is clearly a time bomb waiting to explode and our educational system is exacerbating the problem rather than helping solve it. Setting aside the fundamental problem of primary and secondary school systems that emphasise rote learning rather than critical thinking, it is particularly distressing to see huge numbers of university and technical institute graduates who remain unemployed for years after graduation. When they do find jobs, too many frustrated youth have to settle for occupations unrelated to their specialised education or that do not require any higher education at all. Meanwhile, a number of growing economic sectors continue to search in vain for qualified labour. It is as if there is a complete disconnection between the skills we are teaching our youth and the skills that are in fact demanded by the market. One sector where a severe mismatch of available skills and market needs is clearly obvious is the health sector. It will probably come as a surprise to no one that there is a great demand for qualified nurses in all parts of Egypt in both private and public hospitals. Despite this, year in and year out our educational system continues to produce thousands of university graduates in fields we do not need, while the capacity of our nursing schools, nursing institutes and nursing faculties, remains woefully inadequate. While non-governmental organisations can help alleviate this problem at the margins, through the funding of targeted training, there is obviously a systemic problem that can only be addressed by a change in public policy. It is clear that resolving the nursing shortage (as well as the shortage of many other skills) in a sustainable manner, requires a major re- allocation of our educational resources. Without that, we cannot hope to raise our capacity to accelerate economic growth and seriously address our grave and growing unemployment problem. The timid reforms of the educational system to date have not addressed the persistent mismatch between our educational system and market needs. The present educational system must be recognised for what it is: a squandering of Egypt's scarce resources that is detrimental to our well being and which affects, most of all, the poorest among us, since they are the least able to fend for themselves against this inefficient allocation of public resources. There is no valid excuse for us to spend billions of pounds, particularly on university education, to produce graduates with little if any marketable skills. A simple cost benefit analysis would show that this is a true waste of taxpayer money. This state of affairs would not be justified in any society, let alone in a country with meagre resources and an exploding population, like ours. To be credible, any educational reform must stem the continuous growth in university enrolment under the pretext of "free education" for all. It is time that we openly admitted that the slogan of "free education" has been turned on its head and is devoid of any real meaning. What is taught to our students is not real "education" nor is it really "free", due to the prevalence of "private lessons" at exorbitant prices. It is unconscionable that as a society, we are expending huge amounts of money to teach our children and yet we are getting precious little in return. Think of how different the picture would have been had we undertaken a rational re-allocation of these funds years ago. I believe that with the same resources we could have had a high quality educational system geared to satisfy market needs. The market is clearly not calling for hundreds of thousands of faculty of arts graduates every year. It is desperately clamouring for specialised and skilled technicians (not university graduates) capable of competing in today's global workplace. So why do we stay on a course that does not make sense? The fact that officials try to comfort us by boasting of more government programmes being established to "re-qualify" university graduates for the job market only adds insult to injury. Is this not an admission that four years at university at the public's expense does not qualify graduates for employment? Why do we not fix the educational system to allow it to produce the quality of education needed rather than continue to throw away good money? Why do we not replace many of the so-called universities with truly superior technical schools, rather than try to re- educate university graduates after they graduate? Free university education should indeed be available to outstanding high school students regardless of their financial abilities. There are a number of systems that could be implemented to ensure that. However, it makes no sense to have taxpayers, mostly with limited incomes, pay for the education of those who are better off and even those who fail their courses year after year. It also makes no sense to have even larger student bodies in universities without having the resources needed to provide them with a meaningful education. It is high time that we provided the coming Egyptian generation with a fighting chance to compete in the new millennium. We have already lost valuable time and resources, not to mention the loss of confidence and sense of hope in the younger generation. We need to stop sabotaging our country's and our children's future. We must, without further delay, overhaul what everyone knows is a broken educational system. * The writer is an economist, the former executive director of the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development and former Simor adviser to the International Monetary Fund.
