Officials from the Ministry of Education have been requested to appear before parliament to be questioned over the proposed educational system.
Member of parliament’s education committee Magda Nasr said in press statements on Sunday that the committee has summoned a number of officials from the ministry in charge of the new system, to attend the committee’s discussions and to understand the system more clearly.
“Since the committee received an incomplete plan from the ministry officials, they will be summoned to provide further clarification,” Nasr said.
Last week, Minister of Education Tarek Shawki announced a number of decisions related to the new comprehensive system expected to be applied in the 2018/2019 academic year.
Shawki said that his ministry will cancel the country’s popular experimental school system and that students in all public schools will study science, math, geography, and history in the Arabic language from kindergarten until the sixth grade, after which they will be taught those subjects in English.
The minister added that the Arabisation part of the plan will not be applied to private or international schools. The plan was sent to the World Bank to obtain a loan and was approved.
Parents of students at experimental schools protested against the plan in front of the Ministry of Education in Downtown Cairo, as they see the schools as opportunity of providing children with quality education at affordable prices.
The committee is not planning to summon the minister during the meeting with the officials, but they may call him in if the discussions are not fruitful, Nasr said. Moreover, member of parliament Mohamed Akkad said that he submitted an inquest to the minister over the plan.
