CAIRO: Mohamed and John are two school students studying the same books on opposite sides of the Atlantic. In Egypt, Mohamed, who goes to an international school, learns that the capital of Israel is Tel Aviv. He studies that evolution is a theory that could be partly wrong.
In the US, John, who attends a public school, learns that the capital of Israel is Jerusalem and evolution is a proven scientific fact.
Although international schools in Egypt do not have to abide by a set curriculum, they still operate under the country’s age-old customs and generally stick to its cultural beliefs. In this context, many schools use their own discretion to censor the books they teach from, which has led some international publishers to create textbook editions exclusively for Middle East schools, according to industry insiders.
The way international schools operate is by setting a curriculum based on the one in the country whose education system they follow, mainly the US and Europe. American schools in particular have a more loose form of education, allowing more room for external reading and research, which may make the curriculum seem more vague to an outsider.
Because the average Egyptian comes from a conservative culture, patriotic and religious, certain aspects of foreign cultures are considered unacceptable here.
“International schools do not get their license unless a committee reviews the curriculum and makes sure it complies with Egyptian and Arab culture and is in sync with what is acceptable on a national level, stated the office overseeing private schools in the Ministry of Education.
However, according to Ashraf Hazem, former sales and marketing director for the International Language Bookshop for over 20 years, the committees do not catch what they are supposed to be trying to find, especially when it comes to American schools.
The committees usually have a curriculum to compare the books to.
However, Hazem said the ministry has nothing to compare American books to and the reviewers’ English language skills are usually not strong enough to catch the underlying meaning of the information in the books.
International schools tend to censor the books they are using based on general cultural norms. A principal at an international school, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that each subject is scrutinized differently.
For social studies, she said, they look at the index and look for information on Islam, women in Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Israel, the Arab World, the maps and the Holocaust.
For English language books, they read the novels page by page and look for what can be considered as “too much inappropriate language, sexual content and depth of content. She said this type of censorship isn’t extreme, meant only to ensure that the content complies with the culture.
With science books, they look for information on evolution and how it is presented.
“In general, she said, “you wouldn’t immediately take out the censored material, sometimes if it is not too offensive we leave it so older students can discuss it.
In one college level psychology book currently being taught at the American University in Cairo, one paragraph reads: “Hebrew is the only major language that is written from right to left with books starting at the ‘back’ and pages turned toward the ‘front.’ The professor who caught this omission of the Arabic language (which is more common around the world and is also written from right to left) filed a complaint and used it as a lesson to teach her classroom that they should read more thoroughly what they are learning and receiving from outside of the country and should speak out. The instructor was an American professor.
In other international schools in Egypt, similar content is left intact and students enter college with lessons learned in their history classes that most probably would have been censored if caught by the Education Ministry’s reviewing committee. “Egypt did not win the 1973 war, or novels with sexual content or derogatory language are some of the common issues.
Other schools buy books tailored to the Middle East.
Hazem, who currently works with the Oxford University Press, said publishers listen to complaints from those who buy their books. He said many publishers have editions that are copyrighted for the US only and work on editions tailored for the Middle East since the culture is completely different from their own.
Hazem said when the publishers find a complaint is recurrent, they immediately comply.
On top of the list are issues relating to Israel. In the US editions, Jerusalem is placed as the capital of Israel and taught as such, although officially Jerusalem is currently disputed territory and not accepted internationally as the capital of Israel. The Holocaust is presented differently. Information on Islam is subject to change, because it is generally different from what Egyptians and Muslims would accept.
