Middle East malaise

By Samir Sobhi

---

Our bureaucracy is overcrowded with under-performing employees, so what do we do with it? Someone has suggested we have everyone working half-time for half the salary. What a brilliant notion! That will go down well with underpaid teachers who want to use the time to give lucrative private lessons. Can you imagine how much money Egyptians are spending on private lessons? Can you imagine the expense and disruption? Can you imagine what parents have to go through just to get their children through school?

I remember when schools were places where education actually occurred. I remember when children went to school to learn, not to commission teachers for lessons. I remember when English teachers knew the language and Arabic teachers taught us calligraphy. Families used to put aside money for children to get married, not to survive the educational system. Parents saved for years to give their children a better future, not just to get them through college.

There must be a way to change things around. There must be a way to take schools back to doing what they're supposed to do. But we don't seem to know how or where to start. We don't seem to have a clue, with education or anything else. We don't seem prepared for anything. Mad cow disease, bird flu, terror, war against terror, corruption, racketeering -- the list is endless. And quick fixes are not the answer.

This week's Soapbox speaker is deputy editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram.