For many years, the Egyptian people have been complaining about the flawed education system that resulted in a decline of a qualified workforce. This will above all also affect the country's future leaders. The curricula need an urgent reform, so society can benefit from adequately trained and educated graduates. The currently used curricula focus entirely on memorising instead of understanding and independent thinking processes. Education experts advocate a complete overhaul of the education system. Hassan Shehata, a professor at Ain Shams University, said: “The future curriculum should be based on modern life and market requirements and not only focus on getting a degree." He added that there needed to be much better co-operation between teacher and student, while modern technologies such as Internet use should also be included. “Studying should be practical rather than theoretical and focus on farms, factories, banks and tourism, which would enable the student to easily find a job. “We must consider what skills the workplace needs. It's necessary to reform teaching as such, and the Ministry of Education should inspect schools at least once a month to make sure that modern education methods and technologies are indeed used," he added. “Education should teach a problem- solving skills," suggested Moustafa Ragab Salem, the head of the curriculum department and education at Suez Canal University. He added that a modern curriculum should be practical and workplace oriented. “We want the curricula to be changed; a primary school student needs to know how to write and read. This is at present often not the case," he added. Salah Madkour, an expert at the Education Ministry, said: “The ministry should first train the teacher to help the student understand and not memorise." He added that the new method should be based on research, gleaned from books or the Internet. “The students need to be taught that there is a big difference between memorising information and looking for information in a special field and then applying it. “Egypt's education system must improve at every stage, and the students must equally develop," he added.
