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

militant groups (at least until 1997), but also faced a growing political challenge
by individual members of the Muslim Brotherhood who served as candidates
or voted for these candidates in elections for the People’s Assembly. Thus, while
some limited moves toward decentralization and community participation in the
1990s were framed in terms “democratization” and improving quality, central
authorities referenced “national security” in explaining their ambivalence toward
and hesitation in implementation of reforms to education, and their direct
actions to limit local initiative, (i.e. purging of educators and curricular materials,
enacting a school uniform law).
Interactions across Dimensions
Stakeholder participation and success in successful pilot interventions, and
subsequent inclusion of key actors into positions of power, encouraged the
development of consensus support for decentralization, as well as other reform
activities. During the 1990s, successful pilot projects, resource support from
multilateral agencies, and Egyptian MOE engagement in EFA activities nurtured
experimentation with community participation and decentralization.
The Egyptian government and Islamist militants reaching a non-aggression
pact after the attack on tourists in Luxor in 1997 seems to be one of the major
explanations of the take-off in education reform efforts in governance and
management reforms such as decentralization and community participation.
Subsequent to the non-aggression pact, the ruling National Democratic Party and
the Egyptian government promoted reforms in order to enhance their legitimacy
within communities that had previously been less well served and less involved.
At the same time, the struggle for political control in Egypt continued, with
Muslim Brotherhood supporters achieving a sizeable minority in the People’s
Assembly in 2006.
During the period studied, increasing domestic discontent with the quality
and outcomes of education increased pressure for reforms that would provide
Egyptian families and youth with greater opportunities for a quality education.
Importantly, providing “relevant” and “needed” educational and other social
services to communities as part of a strategy to weaken the “threat” of Muslim
Brotherhood (whose base was built through provision of such services) also
resonated with multilateral and bilateral development agencies.
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SECTION 2: lESSONS fROM COUNTRY CASE STUdIES