THE appointment of the son of a former interior minister as Minister of Education has been met with mixed reactions. Millions of parents are optimistic that Ahmed Zaki Badr, the son of late Minister Zaki Badr, will put an end to the decades-long disorder and chaos in this big, influential Ministry. Many people think that the leniency of former ministers of education has encouraged teachers and schoolchildren to irresponsibly abandon the classrooms altogether. Teacher-pupil relation shifted long ago to their pupils' homes: lowincome parents complain that private tuition consumes a large slice of their monthly income. These economically devastated families also protest that teachers coerced their children, psychologically and corporeally, to have private tuition at home or in coaching centres; if not, they get bad marks in their mid-year and final exams. Desperate parents hope that the new minister will crack down on the private tutors, while he is likely to come down very hard on anyone whoopposes his policies. Teachers loyal to radical groups can expect tough confrontations with the new minister. The teachers' apprehensions are shared by the parents who support them. Perhaps the story of the new minister's father is why the teachers are so anxious. Late Minister of Interior Zaki Badr implemented an extraordinarily strict security strategy in the wake of a spate of armed attacks on policemen and civilians by Islamist militant groups. It was said that he ordered policemen not to hesitate before pulling the trigger. The late minister's 'shoot to kill' policy was allegedly unavoidable, because dozens of policemen, including generals, paid the price for their hesitation during raids on suspects' hideouts.
