Parliament’s education committee intends to hold meetings with Minister of Education Tarek Shawky in July, to discuss the development of the sector and prepare for the next school year.
A parliamentary member of the committee, who preferred not to be named, said that the committee will discuss with the minister new schools opening at the beginning of the next academic year and the file of private schools and the fees for admission, as some schools have increased tuition by over 30%.
Pre-university education allocations were at EGP 89bn in the draft budget, while the ministry sought EGP 128bn.
The committee said in a report sent to the planning and budget committee earlier this month that the allocations for the ministry in the draft budget do not commit to Article 18 of the constitution, which specifies allocations at 7% of the total GDP, which is estimated at EGP 5.2tn.
The report, which was obtained by Daily News Egypt, said that the allocations were estimated at EGP 89bn, while the Ministry of Education had requested allocations of EGP 128bn. The allocations for university education were estimated at EGP 35bn, while the Ministry of Higher Education initially sought about EGP 59bn.
According to the committee, the proportion of pre-university education allocations provided in the next draft budget is only 2% of the GDP, which is a huge downgrade from a target of EGP 204bn.
“The proportion of financial allocations for higher education is about 1.5% of the constitution’s term, down from 2%,” the source said.
A parliamentary member said that the planning and budget committee had requested an increase of EGP 20bn for the education sector next year, higher than the government’s allocation of EGP 115bn.
The MP said that securing these funds can be done through settlement programmes set by the government to reconcile with those who obtained state lands illegally.
