Education is key to the health and well being of the nation, writes Sayed Attia* The issue of development has been and will remain the main goal of the government of Egypt since the early 1960s through the first national plan (1960-1965) until now. The outcome of successive plans is fairly modest compared to other countries that started off at the same time, such as Malaysia. The recent spike in food prices and related woes make it imperative to consider new strategies for development in Egypt. Egypt needs a constructive critic rather than applause of meagre progress made in some sectors of the economy now and then. In order to fairly examine the impact of development policies adopted in Egypt we need to look at indicators of the state of the economy. For instance, those classed as poor amount to 19.4 per cent of the Egyptian population while inflation is nearly 19 per cent at present. Away from macroeconomic parameters, we need also to focus on development in its broad sense. In 1991, the World Bank in its World Development Report, asserted that, "the challenge of development... is to improve the quality of life. Especially in the world's poor countries, a better quality of life generally calls for higher incomes -- but it involves much more. It encompasses as ends in themselves better education, higher standards of health and nutrition, less poverty, a cleaner environment, more equality of opportunity, greater individual freedom, and a richer cultural life. "Development must therefore be conceived of as a multidimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and national institutions, as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality, and the eradication of poverty. Development, in its essence, must represent the whole gamut of change by which an entire social system, turned to the diverse basic needs and the desires of individuals and social groups within the system, moves away from a condition of life widely perceived as unsatisfactory towards a situation or condition of life regarded as materially or spiritually better." At this critical point, Egypt should look to the long-term and alter its development concepts accordingly. The starting point is to reconsider education from the basic level to the graduate level. Raising the quality of education is a daunting challenge in Egypt's march to development. The so-called "Asian tigers" would not have been able to achieve their impressive development absent a solid educational foundation spurring competitive manufacturing. In Egypt, we have to acknowledge that regulatory reform alone is not enough. We need reform on the ground. The government adopted brave steps on many fronts in order to pave the way for the Egyptian economy to merge into the global economy. But alas, our education is still lagging behind that of most countries. Egypt needs to get its priorities right. Economic reform -- indeed any reform -- should start with education and raising the quality of the labour market. * The writer is a senior international trade policies researcher.
