CAIRO: In the latest of a series of surprise visits and inspections in schools, Minister of Education Ahmed Zaki Badr fired the head of the Syllabi Development Center and demoted 98 teachers, headmasters and administrators, in a move aimed at culling corruption at the ministry. Badr, who has been appointed minister in January, went on a surprise visit to schools in the governorate of Helwan on Monday and discovered major violations, where the headmaster was not present at the school and the teachers were not following the daily schedule. After the visit, Badr released an order for relocating 98 teachers, headmasters and administrators who worked at the schools he visited in Helwan, which is considered a demotion, as a result of the violations he found. Moreover, at the ministry, Badr fired the head of the Syllabi Development Center, Yousri Afifi, for writing books for private publishing houses. “Ever since his appointment, Minister Ahmed Zaki Badr, has been working on reforming the ministry on many levels,” said Farid Abdel-Samei, head of the press office at the Ministry of Education. “These are all part of his plan to get rid of whatever he finds detrimental for the education system,” he added. Furthermore, he terminated the contracts of 10 officials at the Syllabi Development Center also for writing books for private publishing houses. According to Abdel Samei, nine violations were found at the center which the minister has referred to the Legal Affairs Administration for investigations. “Working for the ministry we are not allowed to write books for private publishing houses; this is a punishable violation,” said Wagdy Afifi, deputy education minister for high school education and the head of the central administration for private education. “There are great changes taking place in the ministry in order to reform the education system,” he added. The Syllabi Development Center is a crucial department at the Ministry of Education; last week, President of Cairo University Hossam Kamel stressed the importance of the syllabi's development. “We want to open all areas for the youth as they are catalysts of social change,” he said. “We want them to actively participate in political reform and we want to stop sidelining the youth completely, and the core of this is changing the syllabi at educational institutions,” Kamel explained.
