PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak this week gave the go-ahead to a new scheme to upgrade high school education. The plan was finalised on Monday during a ministerial meeting the president held with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and the ministers of education and higher education. According to press statements made by Nazif following the meeting, a LE2.5 billion budget will be allocated for the plan that should start next year and be completed within five. The strategy, Nazif told reporters, includes a revision of the high school curricula and dedicated investment in upgrading the quality of schools and the skills of teachers. During the meeting the president also revised plans to confront any outbreak of swine flu in schools which open at the end of September. Nazif told reporters that the ministries of education and health had agreed on a set of measures to contain possible infections. A school that reports any case of swine flu will close down for eight days at the most, Nazif said. Meanwhile, on Sunday, President Mubarak launched the start of the latest phase of a ring road that links Greater Cairo to Lower and Upper Egypt.
