CAIRO - A glaring fact in Egypt is that the majority of the jobless are university graduates. One reason for this is this traditional Egyptian love of academic degrees. Another is the decline in the nation's university education, which continues to be based on learning by rote without attention to the actual needs of the job market. Alas, this self-deception remains as strong as ever, as reflected in this year's desperate jostling of parents trying to secure a place for their children at public and private universities. The situation is doubly ironical, as a large number of secondary school graduates are disappointed over their failure to be accepted by what are perceived to be the prestigious faculties. Meanwhile, students, who will be sitting the General Secondary School Certificate examinations next summer, are also in a dilemma. One of them is Nagwa Hassan. She is no longer interested in becoming a medical doctor, as she is not sure she will obtain high enough scores in the crucial exams to attend the Faculty of Medicine. She has changed her mind and has decided to turn from studying science to arts, before taking her General Secondary School Certificate exams next summer. "My life dream was to be a doctor. My parents and friends used to call me Dr Nagwa," she recalls. "This was until last month, when I was surprised that the medical schools in Egypt raised their minimum admission grades to above 98 per cent of the total marks. This is sheer madness," she adds. "Who can guarantee me that, after studying hard for long months and spending a lot of money on after-school classes, I will manage to get high-enough marks to enter medical school? The safest way now is to shift my attention to the arts section at secondary school." Thousands of Egyptian students have been recently discouraged by a sharp increase in the minimum admission grades set by the faculties of medicine, dentistry, pharmacology and veterinary medicine – traditionally deemed by secondary school graduates to be the ‘blue chip' faculties. Officials at the Ministry of Higher Education say they have decided to increase the number places at the Government-run universities by 6 per cent for the new academic year, in order to absorb as many as possible of the students, who have succeeded in their secondary school exams. Due to high scores obtained by many secondary school leavers this year, several of the so-called top faculties such as medicine, dentistry, engineering and political science, have had to hike up their respective entry grades. "All the places in the faculties of medicine, dentistry, pharmacology, veterinary and engineering were filled in the first phase of the university admission process," says Abdel-Hameed Salama, a supervisor in the University Admissions Department at the Ministry of Higher Education. Experts say that Egypt, a country of 80 million people, does not have enough public universities to cope with the steady increase in secondary school graduates. With around 40 per cent of the country believed to be living below the poverty line, few Egyptians can afford the high tuition fees demanded by the private universities, according to the experts. Officials in secondary schools, meanwhile, report an ‘exodus' of secondary school students, who are due to take final-year exams in 2012, from the science section to the arts or mathematics sections. Apparently alarmed, the Ministry of Education has unveiled a series of measures to reverse the trend. Question-and-answer sessions are planned with secondary school students to encourage them to opt for science studies "because this is what a new Egypt badly needs,” local newspapers quoted an education official as saying. Moreover, the Ministry of Education has promised to develop science textbooks and teaching methods to make them more attractive to students, according to the same official. Education officials, parents and students should go far beyond this traditional way of thinking if this country is to make spectacular advances. Quality education holds the key.
