CAIRO: Amr Koura, chairman of AlKarma Edutainment Production, identified the lack of a form of entertainment that conveys a message to the youth as well as their parents. “Families need to understand what their children are going through at university, with their teachers…etc,” Koura said at a lecture at the American University in Cairo on Wednesday. Koura, determined to develop and expand the relatively new concept of “edutainment” in Egypt and the Arab world, then came up with the idea behind the new series “Al Jami3a,” or “The University.” “Edutainment is communicating positive social messages to the public through media channels, combing it within an entertainment form so that people wouldn't take it as a lesson but as something they are watching and they learn at the same time,” he explained. “Al Jami3a” is a “pan-Arab series” which showcases different cultures from all over the Arab World, illustrated through the characters of the students, who are attending the Middle Eastern University. Koura and his team spent three weeks in the United States with the team behind the American drama “One Tree Hill,” learning from their expertise, their approaches and how they interact with their fans. After eight months of research, Koura's team started working on the series. “We tried as much as possible to include as many different examples through not only the leading roles but the supporting ones a well,” recalls Koura. The team of scriptwriters is comprised of young people, the oldest of whom is 24. The show discusses controversial topics such as relationships, sex and drugs, that are sensitive to Middle Eastern culture. Besides the cultural differences between the characters on the show, there is also a difference in socioeconomic classes, represented through the students who are in the university on scholarships. The show also includes Christian and Muslim characters, of whom there are extremists and moderates. “The important thing is to never take sides, as a producer and as a content developer, I have no right to judge people on how they dress, act, all I do is try to show both sides of the coin,” said Koura. Even though the fictional university the characters are attending is the Middle Eastern University, it is an adaptation of the real-life the American University in Cairo. Koura chose AUC to be the setting of his series and, as he puts it, “also the protagonist,” for two main reasons. “I am an Egyptian and I know how the rest of the Arab world looks at Egyptians … thinking we're all living in the alley, cursing and fighting with one another all the time,” he said. Therefore, for personal reasons, he wanted people to watch the series and become fascinated by “the education and intellectual individuals,” he said. Moreover, Koura explained that “People want aspiration, the guy who goes to Cairo University will find them [students in the series] no different than he is and he will look up to them,” he said, describing this tactic as “a media trick.” “I'm also targeting 300 million Arabs if I don't have an appealing picture it wont interest them and they will think it's like any other series.” The series will start airing on October 1 on Al Hayat and MBC. The television series will also have its website, where fans can log on and express themselves, because feedback is a crucial element in making a successful show which the youth can relate to, according to Koura. Edutainment in Egypt The obvious, and only, example so far of edutainment is the Egyptian version of Sesame Street, which was the brainchild of Koura and produced by AlKarma. Edutainment is a scientific approach based on continuous research. “For Sesame Street I cannot just get a writer who sits down and write, I have to have a child psychologist and an educational expert who examines it from all the different scales, whether it is age-appropriate, etc,” Koura said. But the most crucial element is that whatever is presented is entertaining. If it is not, it is doomed to fail. “Edutainment has to look as just entertainment, if a series tells the people ‘learn from me,' people will immediately switch it off, messages should be incorporated in the drama,” said Koura. AlKarma produced Sesame Street targeting an audience aged two to six. As the producers witnessed the drastic affect it had on children as well as their families, they wanted to target a wider age group. Subsequently, a program called “Yallabina” was born, which aired for two years targeting ages six to 10; then “Esma'ouna” which targeted ages 10 to 15 addressing issues related to child rights.
