Dr. Yousry El-Gamal, Minister of Education, announced that in the next school year 80,000 new teachers – out of the 180,000 assisting teachers working at the ministry - will be appointed after obtaining a teaching license for the first time. He added that this decision was the first of its kind since five years, during which no new teachers have been appointed.
Speaking to the MENA news agency yesterday, El-Gamal said: "Teaching licenses are granted according to the new pattern of the teachers' pay-scale. It will be put forward to the Supreme Council for Pre–University Education in its next meeting to grant these licenses to the new teachers."
He added: "The 80,000 teachers who will obtain these licenses have spent a school year as an assisting teacher and met all the requirements in terms of educational qualification or a high qualification as well as an educational one. They will also speak English and are familiar with computers." The minister described the license as a leap forward, as it allows the Ministry to ensure that teachers are not only graduates from education faculties but also meet all those conditions. El-Gamal explained that the Professional Academy for Teachers will train these teachers on the English language and help them obtain the International Computer Driving License (ICDL), which he described as fundamentals applied for the first time. He pointed out that after training them, the 17 branches of the Academy will test them in education, their specialization and Arabic.
Gamal said: "The ministry will not only appoint 80,000 teachers, but will also enter into a contract with another group of teachers for a year." He explained that during the next meeting of the Supreme Council for Pre–University Education an agreement will be put forward that has been reached with education faculties qualifying currently-available teachers to enter into a contract for obtaining an educational qualification. He also said some faculties have laid out distance learning programs to achieve a sort of balance between teachers and their performance at school. The Minister of Education also said that the results of the exams for technical diplomas will be announced at the end of next week. He also pointed out that the final indications of the samples were good and not inferior to last year.
The minister expected the overall percentage to be between 60% and 75%, as 75% of the grades are awarded for students' practical compulsory attendance. The minister met the first wave of top students in the City of the Youth in Abukir (Alexandria) on Thursday at the presence of Dr. Safi Eddin Kharboush, Chairman of the National Council for Youth. The minister said that the new secondary school system will be applied from 2011, pointing out that it will be applied to the first students who have completed the first year of preparatory school and sat the relative exams this year. He stressed that LE 2.5 billion have been allocated, in collaboration with the World Bank and the Ministry of Communications, to develop secondary education by updating curricula and schools, preparing teachers, updating question banks and the IT infrastructure of schools, and preparing the educational guide. He also said 700 schools will be prepared and a time frame will be set to prepare 1,700 more over the next two years. He pointed out that this is part of the efforts to build a new education system within 2011. The minister was asked a question about the role of the Ministry of Education in addressing the abuses and violations of private schools. He said the State is responsible for all types of public and private education and for addressing all abuses and violations by taking the necessary legal procedures, such as warnings and threats to put these schools under the ministry's administrative and financial supervision.
