CAIRO: One of the hottest topics that will be discussed during the 2008/9 Parliamentary round is the new teachers law as well as the controversial pay-scheme linking raises with assessment exams, Muslim Brotherhood MP Osama Gado told Daily News Egypt. One day before the start of the new Parliamentary round, Gado sent Daily News Egypt his analysis of the new teachers law. Fourteen percent of the teachers who took the exam failed it, he said, and, consequently, they are frustrated and feel that their public image has been tarnished. He explained that the 14 percent correspond to 100,000 of the 830,258 teachers who took the exam. "Only 85.9 percent of the teachers passed the examination, and 13 percent [of teachers overall] boycotted it, Gado said. "I have one main observation on this result; I do not think it is fair because the teachers were not prepared before taking this exam. Teachers should have been given courses to enhance their teaching skills prior to the exams, Gado said. In his report, Gado pointed out a "conflict in the policies and procedures adopted by the Ministry of Education during the exams. He said the Ministry of Education only appointed the head of the exams supervising committees a few days before the teachers took the test. This, he explained, can only highlight the contradiction between the government's statement that this law was its top priority and the carelessness and lack of planning involved in the process. "We support anything that can be done to enhance and develop our educational system but we are totally against insulting our teachers and damaging their public image, Gado concluded in his report. The exams were originally created to assess teachers' qualifications and whether they are eligible for the pay raises specified in the relatively new legislation. "If the exams set the right standard by which to measure teachers' performances, then it should be applied to all education administrators in Egypt, Azza Esmat, chairman of the Education Administration in Giza, told Daily News Egypt prior to the exam. According to Esmat, at the time, the tests were set by the national center for examinations and were meant to be conducted on a random sample of teachers from different governorates. Last January, Youssry Al-Gamal, minister of education, announced that the new teachers' law should be implemented in all schools, both public and private. The hype surrounding the law, which was approved by PA, was mainly due to the salary increase it would grant underpaid teachers working for public schools, while putting limitations on private tutoring.
