Getting a Quality Education in Egypt - Back to Basics

Students in a community-based school in Abou Teeg, a hamlet near the Egyptian city of Assiut, finish their day's work and prepare for end-of-day presentations. Small groups of students present their work to the class. Their peers critique and praise their efforts, whose topics range from mathematics to science to history. Students move from one subject to another with confidence and ease. The discussion is lively and everyone participates.

From the outside, the school building is not very impressive. A water buffalo lazes in the sun outside the door. The building looks more like a barn than a schoolhouse. Entering the building is like being transported into another world. The mud brick walls are covered with colourful artwork and there are workstations for different activities. The mud floors are covered with festive straw mats. Instead of desks lined up in rows, there are small worktables and chairs grouped in different areas. There are about 25 children in the class with plenty of space to move around. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, lively and energized. Older children are helping younger ones, proudly transferring their knowledge and reinforcing their own learning at the same time.

There are no teachers in this classroom. No lectures. The adults in the classroom are facilitators chosen in close consultation with the community, which is actively involved in the school. The facilitators are trained to guide, encourage, and evaluate the students. They act as knowledge resources for student study groups and are responsible for creating a positive learning atmosphere. The students themselves are in charge of their individual learning.

The only resources in the classroom that are not handmade by the facilitators or students are the Ministry of Education textbooks and a few other resource materials in the library. All the other teaching aids are made from scraps of paper, cardboard, and plastic, sending an important message about the importance of environmental sustainability to students and the community.

All of this is happening near Assiut: upper Egypt's largest city, the region's main agricultural centre, and home to some of the poorest families in the country. Since its inception in 1992, UNICEF's Community Schools Project has established over 200 schools in partnership with the communities of Sohag, Qena and Assiut Governorates, with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as the primary funding agency from 1993 on. These 200 schools have provided a basic education to 6500 hard-to-reach children-about 70 percent of whom are girls.

The schools teach environmental responsibility and respect for others, and they produce students capable of critical thinking and academic excellence, with 92 percent of graduates going on to preparatory school. They are also able to attract and keep girls in school in a region where disparities in access to education between boys and girls continue to exist. Some reports indicate that as many as 25 percent more boys attend school than girls due to cultural and economic restrictions such as the traditional marriage of girls in their early teens, and the distance between rural schools and the village which prevents girlswho are expected to stay close to homefrom attending.

A key player in the Community Schools Project is the Egyptian Ministry of Education, which pays facilitator salaries and tests children to ensure they are able integrate into regular secondary schools. The community school model has inspired the development of the Mubarak One Classroom Schools initiative in Egypt, and other donors have used the lessons learned as the basis for new programs.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of this model CIDA will continue to support the community schools over the next five years. The objectives? To strengthen the capacity of community organizations, partner non-governmental organizations and the Egyptian Ministry of Education, gradually phase out UNICEF's financial support, and integrate community schools into the One Classroom Schools department of the Ministry of Education. The aim is to ensure that more girls and boys have access to quality basic education.