The Education Minister's recent decision that students who get a score of 50 per cent in their last year of preparatory education should leave study for one year before joining any of the technical schools has provoked debate among education experts, who see it as a step encouraging children to drop out of school. Education experts assert that the decision further weakens this nation's system of education, which is already riddled with many flaws. "This decision could make children favour staying at home or going down to the street, rather than completing their education," said Dr Ahmed Hegazy, a professor of sociology at Ain Shams University, adding that it seems that the Government orders students to willingly drop out of school. He added that the whole educational system needs an overhaul, if we really want to develop and extend a run of economic growth. He went on the say that this requires putting in place plans, that can really reform the educational process instead of further weakening it by an increase in the number of illiterate people. According to a report issued by the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre last year, nearly 30 percent of Egypt's 85 million people are illiterate, alongside a school drop-out of 6.5 per cent. Despite free education and long-running literacy programmes, the number of illiterates has changed little in the past two decades. Nadia Gamal Eddin, a professor in the Educational Studies Institute at Cairo University, showed astonishment at this decision issued by the Government, claiming that it will work on demolishing all the skills the children acquired in their basic education. The children many also get accustomed to not studying for one year, which increases the likelihood of them not completing their education. "Children who grow up illiterate are less likely to improve their economic situation than those who can read and write. They are less likely to educate their children," Gamal Eddin asserted. She also elaborated that the Government should have made use of the massive human wealth in this most populous Arab country, by opening the floodgates for practical, advanced education and helping adults to direct their energy for the welfare of this nation. Dr Moustafa Abdel Samei, the former dean of the Educational Studies Institute, points out that this decision is totally wrong, and could have a bad moral and psychological impact on students, who get a low score in their last year of preparatory school. "They may feel that they are unsuccessful, and, so they start to have a gloomy, idle perspective towards the future," Abdel Samei asserted. "How the Egyptian Government dare to take decisions, encouraging school drop-outs, while in advanced countries, officials constantly talk about life-long learning as a key for accelerating growth," Abdel Samei wonders, referring to the fact that school drop-outs threaten a society, as it opens the way for more thugs and street children.
