President Hosni Mubarak decreed the limited cabinet reshuffle of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's government, with the appointment of two new cabinet ministers and five provincial governors to the five-year-old government. It comes at an opportune moment. It signals far more than at first meets the eye. The appointment of academics and technocrats noted for their outspokenness and professionalism points to a new beginning. There is a compelling need to speed up the rate of change in the country and propel the pace of development forward. The emphasis on human resource development is pivotal at this particular historical juncture. This, of course, is a long- term process, but Egypt needs to lay the foundations for the future now. Education, or rather the deplorable state of education in the country at present, has become a hot topic of discussion in the media and among the public at large. The outgoing minister of education Yosri El-Gamal paid the price of his incompetence. He was criticised for all and sundry for his poor performance. It was widely acknowledged that there was a dire need to have a competent, outspoken and no nonsense minister in charge of the education portfolio. The very future of the country is at stake. The very development of the country is dependent on the capabilities and eligibility of the future generations. There is a desperate need for a complete overhaul of the educational system in the country from primary schooling to secondary education and institutions of higher learning. The newly appointed Minister of Education Ahmed Zaki Badr, president of the public University of Ain Shams, has a reputation as a man of action who did not condone any lapses in security on campus. He is known for not compromising with those who spread disorder, lawlessness and anarchy among radical student elements. He is convinced that the main task of university education is learning that leads to the creation of cadres of competent professionals who will in the near future oversee the development of the country. Universities, the new minister insists, should not be turned into hotbeds of student activism. Even more critically important in the short-term is the positioning of high military and security officials as governors in areas of grave national security concern such as the newly appointed governors of the North and South Sinai governorates. Armed with this knowledge, it should be possible to iron out many of the country's most pressing problems. The tense security situation on the northeastern border is becoming an ever more pressing concern for the country. Mubarak also appointed Alaa Fahmi, chief of the National Postal Authority, as new transport minister. Transportation has also become a contentious issue in the past few months after a series of disasters that led to a high death toll. Fahmi's predecessor in the post, Mohamed Lotfi Mansour, resigned on 27 October after two passenger trains collided north of Cairo. The incident brought to the fore the prerequisite for higher standards of professionalism in the transport sector as a whole and necessitated the inclusion of a heavy-handed technocrat to instill discipline. Upgrading the performance of the Railway Authority, expanding the country's network of roads and bridges, and reforming the maritime transport sector has become a vital national concern. The quest for a far less risky transport system is a key priority.
