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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 -10 February 1999 Issue No. 415
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Book Fair Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Education ministers under fire
By Mariz Tadros"I welcome all criticism and opinions," announced Education Minister Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin, brimming over with confidence, at the start of a seminar on education last Thursday. He certainly got his fair share of the first. The seminar's moderator announced that questions would be fielded in an "organised" manner. In other words, people had to write their questions down on paper, have them approved by the moderator, then, if given permission, they would stand up and air their questions.
Many participants, knowing that only certain types of questions would pass, decided to play things differently. Many wrote down safe and straightforward questions, so that they would be invited to speak, but once before the microphone, they seized the opportunity to ask their "real" questions.
One student asked whether the minister was not contradicting himself when he shut down private tuition centres on the premise that their teachers did not hold teaching degrees while, at the same time, accepting thousands of non-specialised applicants for teaching positions at the Ministry of Education. The moderator fumed: "This was not the question you wrote down. Your question dealt with ways of improving teachers' performance." But members of the public shouted, "Let him speak."
What followed was a fervent attack on private centres by the minister, who said that such centres are often run by God-knows-who, like caretakers and bicycle repairmen. He then suggested that pupils are drawn to the centres because they can enjoy the lack of parent supervision there and, therefore, all sorts of vices are tolerated, like hashish-smoking and unruly mixing of the sexes. The minister also said that he had appointed non-graduates of education colleges because there were some posts in the provinces which nobody wanted to fill.
One university professor asked the minister to explain why -- despite all the efforts being made to improve the quality of schools, reform the syllabuses and raise the standards of student performance -- "the educational level of every new batch of students I teach seems to be inferior to that of the previous year, although the students' school marks are higher." Bahaeddin pointed out that the changes in the educational system that were introduced in 1992 began with the first year primary level, and that it will take time before students in that level reach university. He then lashed out: "It is like when people point their fingers and say, 'look, not one candidate who sat for the Foreign Ministry or the news broadcasters' examinations has passed'. Am I supposed to be responsible for the educational levels of people who were in the system 15 years ago?"
One man asked: "With the father coming home wanting to rest after a hard day's work, and with the mother now working, who is to bring up the children?" There was an unmistakable hint of chauvinism in Bahaeddin's response: "No doubt the Japanese woman plays a central role in her children's education; her presence with them is essential," he said, adding that he learned how to pray, fast, be clean and honest from his home and that, with the lack of proper upbringing by parents today, "there is a contradiction between the message which the school delivers to the child and that of the household."
The minister spoke eloquently about how Egypt's real wealth lies not in discovering petroleum, but in discovering the geniuses from among those enrolled in the educational system. "It is estimated that geniuses make up one per cent of any population. In Egypt, that comes to 620,000 geniuses whose capabilities are untapped," he said. However, when the minister was asked about what the ministry intends to do to spot these geniuses, especially if they happen to be from an impoverished background, he responded that a workshop would be held soon to discuss this issue "so that we can identify geniuses at the kindergarten level and before it's too late."
On Friday, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Moufid Shehab also had a thing or two to say about Egyptian geniuses who are only discovered once they are out of the country. He estimated that around 12,000 people in that category are living in Europe and the US. Shehab said that the ministry has a programme for extending invitations to Egyptian expatriate scientists, professors and researchers to visit Egypt, so that the country can benefit from their knowledge and expertise.
Shehab admitted that although the government's expenditure on scientific research has trebled in the last five years, it is still not enough. In the light of globalisation, affirmed Shehab, the country vitally needs to focus on building up its scientific base. "We must also look to alternative funding channels. The private sector and special funds are two untapped resources," said Shehab, adding that with the switch to the economic open-door policy, the scope for upgrading the country's scientific and technological capabilities will expand.
Most of the problems facing scientific research centres in Egypt, according to Shehab, are related to management and administration. He also pointed out that scientific research in this country does not get its fair share of recognition because of the lack of press and media attention. If more reporting is done on scientific issues, people would be more appreciative of the country's strong scientific foundations.
Once Shehab finished his presentation, he came under a scathing attack from a chemistry professor, Ashraf El-Bayoumi, who had spent 44 years working in the field. On the open-door policy argument, El-Bayoumi pointed out that Khedive Ismail had also introduced a similar policy and the result was the deliberate shattering of the country's scientific base.
"Let us not forget that foreign players exiled our scientists to Nubia and Sudan and the first thing they wanted to control was our scientific base, because that's what the country's progress depends on. And what scientific base are we talking about in the first place? How many of the 45,000 scientists and researchers whom you mentioned have any capabilities at all?" shouted El-Bayoumi. He had an endless list of grievances on the subject, and attempts to keep him quiet failed. "Let him speak," people shouted every time the moderator tried to stop him.
