2010 has seen a rise of almost 25 percent in the cost of education in Egypt according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMS). Abu Bakr al-Gendi, head of CAPMAS, said Egyptian families spend an average of 3.5 percent of their incomes on education. The latest increases in the cost of education, which have contributed to rising inflation, can be attributed to increases in school fees, the prices of school uniforms and textbooks, he added. He also said that CAPMAS monitors the cost of education every year in September--the beginning of the academic year--as part of a study examining the patterns of expenditure of Egyptian families. These studies, he went on, involve assessing the prices of a collection of 12 different types of goods and services and are conducted on all the different sectors of society. Private and public as schools were included in the survey as well as the Azhar schools and universities. Al-Gendi also mentioned that there has been an increase in the cost of fast food of about 8.3 percent, which he attributed to the rise in local meat prices. The head of CAPMAS further added that families are spending more on fast food, which has led to an increase in the financial burden on families. Recent price hikes have caused inflation to rise by a further 1.1 percent in October. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
