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Bob Reasso Looks at Key Changes in Egypt’s New Educational System

Monday, February 3, 2020 23:03

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Bob Reasso Looks at Key Changes in Egypt’s New Educational System

In an effort to help students achieve their full potential and make a positive and rewarding contribution in society, at home, and later in life in the workplace, in late 2018 Egypt implemented a massive overhaul of the country’s educational system.

According to Bob Reasso, former director of athletics at the American University in Cairo, here are the key pillars of Egypt’s academic evolution that was several years in the making.

Developing Soft Skills

Egypt’s new curriculum, which was based partly on Japan’s Tokkatsu education system and initially rolled-out to kindergarten and first-year primary school students, places a significant emphasis on developing soft skills such as tolerance, communication, respect, social responsibility, community, and character building.

Bob Reasso comments that one of the key elements of this focus is to provide a foundation for students which enables them to make smarter, more responsible choices as they grow and ultimately move into secondary and college education.

Focusing on Critical Thinking

Another pillar of Egypt’s new academic approach is a dramatic shift away from decades of rote learning, or memorization learning, to a curriculum that fosters critical thinking skills and creative problem solving.

Bob Reasso notes that It was widely understood that rote learning was failing to prepare students for a world in which their ability to analyze and adjust is far more vital than their capacity to remember hard facts.

Shifting to an Integrated Multidisciplinary Approach

In recent years, one of the largest and loudest criticisms of Egypt’s educational approach has been that students often learn the same basic things in multiple classes. To address this weakness, the new approach establishes an integrated multidisciplinary curriculum that avoids repetition, while at the same time enables students to clearly see the associations and relationships between different subjects.

Bob Reasso says that teaching students the same fundamental things in different subject areas was not only wasteful and inefficient, but it did little to foster the lifelong love of learning that students need to succeed and thrive over the long term.

Multiple Exams Versus a Single Comprehensive Exam

While all of Egypt’s educational changes point to a better future for all stakeholders, in the opinion of many — if not most — students and teachers, the reform that is most welcome has to do with exams. Previously, primary and secondary students were evaluated based on a single comprehensive exam. If they failed, they were held back. Not only did this trigger a massive amount of stress among students and their families, but it created an enormous clerical burden for teachers who dreaded the prospect of marking exams almost as much as students did taking them. Now, students will not have to take any exams at all until the fifth grade, which eliminates the fear and dread of being held back. What’s more, students in fifth grade and above will take 12 smaller exams throughout the year, instead of a single exam that determines their academic fate.

Bob Reasso notes that multiple exams throughout the year enable teachers to proactively identify students who are struggling in certain areas, and provide them with the support, resources, and tools they need to improve. At the same time, since the exams are accessed through tablets instead of on paper, marking is automatic — which frees up hundreds of hours a year for teachers.

Providing Digital Tools

Egypt’s Ministry of Education (MoE) is also in the process of distributing more than 1.5 million tablets to both students and teachers, so they can both benefit from technology-led methods such as e-learning and educational-based digital gamification.

Bob Reasso says that tablets are being distributed free of charge to students, and the program is financially supported by a World Bank loan.

Bob Reasso on Developing Teachers

Finally, compared with their counterparts in other countries, teacher salaries in Egypt have traditionally been quite low. For example, according to the World Bank, a productive education system compensates teachers at a salary that is 3-3.5 times the GDP per capita. In Egypt, however, teacher salaries have hovered around 1.6 times the GDP per capita. This shortfall has prevented some otherwise dedicated and talented individuals from pursuing this career path and it has also led to some teachers deliberately diminishing their in-school lesson plan in order to generate revenue through private tutoring — a move that some say is categorically corrupt, while others say is an unfortunate necessity based on the low salary. The new reforms aim to address both of these problems by allocating more funds and resources to recruit, train, and compensate skilled teachers.

Bob Reasso says that even the hardest working and most dedicated teachers cannot achieve their potential if they struggle to make ends meet. Paying teachers a fair salary and providing appropriate incentives and rewards that are commensurate with performance and results will go a long way towards making Egypt a global education leader once again.

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