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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Comment Focus Special Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Beyond blackboards
By Said Ismail Ali *
For some 16 million students all over Egypt, a new academic year began last week -- the last academic year of the century. All those involved in the education process -- teachers, students, education experts, administrators and officials -- must work hard so that the problems and constraints that have fettered education in the twentieth century are left behind. Taking patterns of education rooted in the past into the new century would be a perpetration of backwardness. New policies, capable of leading us to a better future, must determine our vision of education.
Even the traditional blackboards used today must be replaced by technological innovations that facilitate the learning process. The political and economic constraints that forced authorities to divide the school day into shifts, cut the length of classes, slash down the curriculum, and eliminate extracurricular activities must not be carried through into the next century. When less is taught, less is understood, and the education process is emptied of its most important components.
With the collapse of several totalitarian regimes at the close of the twentieth century, the world has come to perceive the tragic impact of such regimes on education and socialisation. Transparency is one of the requirements of democracy. It would be a great pity to stifle children and stunt their intellectual growth by stemming the enormous flow of information to which they can now have access. By reforming education, we can guarantee that the coming century marks a change in civilisation, not just the calendar.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is a professor of education at Ain Shams University.
