CAIRO: Youssry Al-Gamal, minister of education, announced that the new teachers law should be implemented in all schools, including the private ones. Al-Gamal told the press that according to the new teachers law, private schools should be allowed to have only a limited number of foreign teachers - the proportion not exceeding 10 percent of the schools total number of teachers - regardless of the size of the school or number of branches. At the same time, Al-Gamal urged all the private schools authorities to make sure to renew the foreign teachers licenses every year. The hype surrounding the law, which was approved by the People's Assembly (PA), was mainly due to the salary increase it would give to underpaid teachers working for public schools and putting limitations on private tutoring. However, the inclusion of non-teaching staff working in the education sector and the teachers working for educational institutions not directly affiliated to the Ministry of Education has stirred problems over the past year. Last summer, the (PA) approved a law offering a special raise to all workers in the education sector who will not benefit from the new teachers' law. The amount offered is similar to the raise given to teachers, MP Farid Ismail told Daily News Egypt. Al Azhar teachers also protested their exclusion from the new law. A presidential decree made the new teachers law, with all its privileges, applicable to Al-Azhar teachers. The decree ended a three-day strike by more than 22,000 Al-Azhar school teachers, who refused to grade the exams of the spring semester. The PA originally recommended that the law be applicable to teachers in public, private and Al-Azhar schools. However, since the law falls under the authority of the Ministry of Education, it cannot be applied to institutions outside its jurisdiction. Magdy Rady, Cabinet spokesperson had told the press that the Ministry of Finance's estimated budget for the teachers law to be implemented on Al-Azhar teachers will be around LE 272 million for the first phase and LE 274.3 million for the second phase. The law was expected to be implemented last July, benefiting a total of 151,549 Al-Azhar teachers. By the end of this year, there will be about 60,000 teachers working under the authority of the Ministry of Education.
