Egypt’s Minister of Education and Technical Education Tarek Shawky said, on Monday, that his ministry cares about correct upbringing of children, not just education.
It came during a press conference to announce the details of the national project to encourage physical activities in schools, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health.
Shawky said that the project aims to increase the physical competence of students, noting that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced the ministry to pay more attention to the health care system in schools.
The objectives of this project are to develop the student’s physical competence, eliminate obesity, invest leisure time in purposeful and constructive activities that support the student and society.
The fitness project includes three phases. In the first phase, students are required to shoot a video of themselves while practicing physical exercises. The second phase will include visiting those students to examine their capabilities. In the third phase, about 80 male and female students will be shortlisted from each governorate. The top three of the selected students will be honoured.
Earlier on Sunday, Shawky said that suspending schools nationwide is “a sovereign decision” that can only be made by the state, not the ministry, asserting that that such a decision is unlikely.
In a televised phone interview, he added that the Ministry will apply the open book exam technique for high school, explaining that the Ministry did not print any books this year, as they were replaced by digital channels.
Earlier, the Minister of Education had announced that the educational television channels will replace school classes, indicating that these educational programmes are prepared for all students from fourth grade in primary school to high school.
He stressed that the educational channel had witnessed a large turnout from primary and preparatory school students.
Shawky added that the world is still suffering from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and that the ministry of education had to reduce in-person school attendance, and rely more on educational television and online channels.
He added that COVID-19 infections at schools range between 200 and 300 cases, most of them adults and not children, in 60,000 schools nationwide.
Moreover, Deputy Minister of Education and Technical Education, Redha Hegazy, emphasised that the diversity of educational resources for students this year, such as educational channels, electronic platforms, and interactive books, helps students to learn better than traditional methods.
Hegazy said that student will rely entirely on new educational programmes in the future, stressing that if a student could not attend the televised programme, he will be able to download it from YouTube.
