The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

in Aswan, Bani Suef, Cairo, Fayoum, Minia, and Qena in anticipation of support
from the USAID-funded Education Reform Program. With the development
of its National Strategic Plan for Education during 2006–2007, the Egyptian
government and other stakeholders committed to more school-level reform,
financial, and decision-making responsibility. During 2006–2007, high level,
inter-ministerial committees charted the course for financial and administrative
decentralization pilots in a small number of governorates.
The calls for greater community participation also represented a struggle between
education reformers and political caution. Throughout the 1990s, the reforms
alternated between action toward deeper forms of community involvement and
reactions that blocked such reforms for fear of excessive militant influence. In
the years since 2000, various central government actions sought to mobilize
(and to control) community involvement through Parent and Teacher Councils
and Boards of Trustees at the school and local levels. However, throughout this
entire period, most of the substantive work was limited to select governorates
and supported by donor-funded projects, including the UNICEF Community
Schools, USAID New Schools Program, Alexandria Pilot Project, and Education
Reform Program). Similarly, NGO involvement in schooling tended to be greater
in governorates and communities in which international organization-funded
projects were operating.
Impact
The Egyptian education system had substantial success in expanding access and
improving equity in this 20-year period. Universal primary education was largely
achieved, and secondary enrollment increased to 88 percent. Primary completion
was maintained at very high levels and dropout was reduced dramatically. Gender
equity also improved substantially in the period.
Throughout the 1990s, progress from the perspective of international donors was
counted in terms of visible projects that demonstrated some effective practices
such as girls’ education, new schools, standards, and community schools. These
initiatives were primarily small-scale demonstration activities whose impact was
limited by the continuing system-wide inertia. Major reforms on issues such as
decentralization had fits and starts. Significant progress on major issues began
with the Alexandria decentralization pilot project in 2001, a highly visible project
that set in motion a reform dynamic. The success of the Alexandria pilot fostered
an outgrowth of like-minded efforts and reform leaders. In 2003, the Ministry of
Education granted seven governorates the authority to pilot more decentralized
systems in selected districts, and adopted the National Standards, representing a
major step in reforming the management and governance of Egypt’s educational
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