Al-Ahram Weekly | Features | In the name of the letter

		21 - 27 November 2002 Issue No. 613 Features	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

In the name of the letter
The American ambassador to Egypt and top dignitaries head to the Fayoum to inaugurate a school. Amira El-Noshokaty goes along to find out why

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Giving kids a chance to enjoy learning
Set among the palm trees stands the brand new five-storey building with blue classroom doors and a school yard out front. Inside we meet Hossam Shaaban. Shaaban is six and according to his name tag he now officially represents the Arabic letter Hah [H], which he will continue to represent for the rest of the school year. Because of this, he will be required to stand up whenever a word is mentioned which contains his letter. Other children whose letters are contained in this word will also stand up, thereby spelling out the entire word. In this way, Hossam gets to know the changing faces of the letter according to its position in various words, how it sounds and how to read it.
This is Al-Zohour Primary School in Fayoum which was officially opened by the American Ambassador David Welsh and Fayoum Governor Saad Nasser last week. Al-Zohour is one of the nine primary schools which comprise the New School Program funded by USAID. The primary aim of the school is to get the community involved in education. In the case of Al-Zohour, locals donated the land and the school was built by the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) Egypt. The public schools opened their doors this week thanks to the voluntary efforts of the Organization of the Local Development of Zawiet Al-Karatsa village in Fayoum.
"We rarely use blackboard and chalk," explained primary school teacher Soheir Hassan to Al-Ahram Weekly. "Now our focal point is the student and how to make information accessible. I am a facilitator not a dictator. Children used to hide behind their hands after misbehaving, expecting to be beaten. This no longer happens."
Hassan, formerly a teacher of Arabic in one of Fayoum's public schools, applied for the New Schooling Program training course, but first had to learn English. She and 70 other teachers then travelled to California to attend a training course. "There they taught me how to use different teaching material and how to get children involved in teamwork, how to encourage them to work in groups. As a result of this we replaced the desks at the Al- Zohour school with colourful hexagonal tables where up to five children can sit together and learn," said Hassan.
According to CARE, adult literacy rates in Egypt increased from 39.2 per cent to 55.4 per cent between 1976 and 1996. Enrollment ratios, however, continue to improve at a slower rate. Poor rural households suffer the most, where 17.4 per cent of children aged between six and 11 do not attend school. Among the total population not enrolled in school, most are girls residing in rural areas. In 1998 a girl of primary school age had an approximately 60 per cent chance of enrolling in primary school, a 50 per cent chance of completing primary school, and a six per cent chance of completing secondary school, although this figure is two per cent for girls in rural areas.
Hence the idea of creating a more attractive schooling programme. The New School Program aims at providing improved education opportunities for 28,800 girls aged between five and 18, in addition to thousands of boys of school-going age. The NSP is engaged in various types of education programmes which focus on an active-learning approach to the student as well as using the Ministry of Education curriculum. The programme comprises primary schools, multi-grade schools and second- chance education for drop-out pupils, and also concentrates on the development of community organisations to support these activities.
In Zawiet Al-Karatsa village and its nine hamlets, 482 girls between the ages of six and 18 were not enrolled in schools. CARE, in conjunction with community volunteers, created the Community Education Team (CET) to address educational problems in their villages. The main problem facing educational programmes is the distance of schools from the villages, the high rate of poverty among inhabitants and the traditional beliefs that girls are not in need of education as their role is to get married and become housewives. The CET tried to resolve these issues by undertaking a door-to-door campaign promoting education for girls. The organisation even went as far as to provide scholarships for those unable to afford the school fees. This resulted in 110 of 113 girls of Zawiet Al- Karatsa village becoming enrolled in six classes at the school.
In the multi-grade classroom the young girls were all sitting at their round tables, each group busy at some form of handiwork which they proudly displayed. But they were more proud of their educational achievements.
"The multi-grade classrooms are for girls under the age of 14," explained Samir El- Sabagh, CARE programme manager. "We run these classes for people too young to attend literacy classes, and those too old to attend the main-stream school system," added El-Sabagh. He also said the multi-grade schooling system was based on the regular primary school curriculum which is taught to different age groups.
Reda Korany is 15 and has never attended school because of financial difficulties. Now she is learning to read and write. "I think that it is important to learn to read. What would happen if a letter arrived at home and neither my brother nor father were there to read it? Now I'd be able to do this," she explained. Korany sees herself as a future lawyer.

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