Leaders of tomorrow CAIRO: While political reform is foremost on the minds of most Egyptians, the younger generations are now faced with another, more urgent matter: exams. This year, the exams have coincided with the World Cup, and while not everyone will be able to watch the Cup due to the rights held by Arab Radio and Television, the distraction is still there. With exams upon us, The Daily Star Egypt took to the streets to find out people's views regarding the education system in Egypt. Egyptian education is very bad, except in a few private schools and universities. Free education is a history, but this (private schools) is a good step to concentrate on a smaller number of students. These students will be very well educated and help the country develop. But those who don t have enough money should also have a chance. Ahmad, engineer (Thanaweya Amma) is the beast that frightens everybody. Parents pay a lot for the private classes, and at the end, we find extremely bad education in the governmental universities. I think the whole system should be reevaluated. They don t put the parents into consideration.Neivene, housewife Everybody is against the teacher; this is the slogan in the Egyptian educational system. They talk about private classes and teachers should stop giving them and concentrate on their schools. I am a teacher and I do my work honestly in my school. But how can i concentrate in a 45 minute class with more than 50 students. In the private classes I teach five or six students only for two hour s; this allows for better teaching. I say if we had good enough salaries that met our basic needs we wouldn t be in need to humiliate ourselves between students homes and private classes.Ahmad, teacher in a prepatory school I learned a lot in my school and university. But all of those who graduated and started their careers told me that in practical life they didn t make use of any of what they were taught. I feel a little bit depressed because of that and I feel that I should just pass in the exams without being keen to learn.Michael, student We have sterile curriculums. We need private classes to understand these complicated subjects. I though that my last private class would be in high school, but when I started university I found that private classes are a must. To tell you the truth, I just want to have my degree. I will be a housewife; I don t want to have a job at all.Noha, student I wish I had any educational degree. In our time, making money and having a job was obligatory to stay alive in crowded families. Now I try to give all my children a good education. But I am so worried about them because there are no job opportunities at all.Ahmad, plumber Free education for such a large number of students is an illusion. [Former Presidnet Gamal Abdel] Nasser started free education when more than 80 percent of Egyptians were literate. Now free education has no meaning. Free education means very low salaries for the teachers, very low educational level and very bad schools. This means a collapsed system. We have many young people with university degrees while they don t even deserve their high school degrees. So they are reeducated in their work places.Mohamed, physician The views expressed in Word on the Street do not necessarily reflect the views of The Daily Star Egypt.
