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LearnLink Projects: EGYPT: GIRL'S EDUCATION
Girls'
Basic Education in Egypt
With
support from USAID/Cairo, LearnLink assisted the Ministry of Education’s
(MOE’s) efforts to improve girls’ education in Egypt.
The
MOE undertook a series of educational reforms to address the gender
gap in primary school enrollment and retention rates; the general
urban-rural gap in the quality of primary education, which is reflected
in regional disparities in enrollment; and the low level of English
competency in science, international commerce, and telecommunications.
Recognizing
the importance of addressing the combination of demographics, tradition,
the public character of rural schools, and historic policies toward
girls’ education and participation in development, USAID/Cairo
provided the Government of Egypt with funding to extend the access,
enrollment, and retention of girls in quality, primary education.
Support was also provided for the MOE’s new English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) requirement for primary level students. The efforts
were directed toward rural, village, and under-served urban areas
in the governorates of El-Minya, Beni Suef, and El-Buheria in Upper
Egypt, where gender inequity in education was identified.
Under
this activity, one-room, multigrade, community-based schools, also
known as "small schools," were expanded. Based on the
successful development of more than 200 community schools in Upper
Egypt under a CIDA/UNICEF-funded project and on Egypt’s experience
with its own "Mrs. Mubarak one-room schools," the Ministry
was already supporting more than 2,000 small schools throughout
the country that emphasized vocational as well as academic training
at the primary level.
LearnLink’s
specific responsibilities included:
- assisting
the MOE in developing strategies and methodologies, as well as
teachers’ guides and instructional materials, for teaching
the Ministry’s curriculum in multigrade classrooms;
- developing
pre-service and in-service teacher training programs for primary
level, multigrade education; and
- creating
an Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) program for EFL education
for 4th and 5th grade students in Egypt’s one-room schools.
For
more information, contact  ict@aed.org
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