There is no doubt that Egypt’s young population represent the core of sustainable development in Egypt and the wealth of our nation, being one third of the population, it is our challenge to integrate youth into society and cultivate their knowledge, education and perception towards unleashing their innovation, skills and potential towards achieving their dreams and hopes for a better world. With such an intent, there are various aspects to how Egypt is moving towards integrating youth into society, reforming education and developing youth business opportunities.
Integrating Youth into Society
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, called for integrating youth through a momentum of Egyptian Youth Conferences, stating that “Egyptian youth with deep ambition and modern scientific backgrounds; are our key hope towards building a civilised, well-educated country; through their dedication Egypt will long live whatever happens”. Integrating youth into society, government and introducing them to the challenges which the country is triumphing to address is a process that should involve schools, universities, clubs, mosques, churches as well as, private and public companies that may hold special youth days and discuss what we can do to move forward. This can be as simple as a clean-up day for streets, and inviting the neighbourhood youth to take care of it. Involving and integrating youth in society should not be the sole responsibility of the government driven only by the president’s initiative, it should rather be a national approach.
Egypt’s Education path – A call for a national plan
Although the country is focused on developing educational resources through building a research portal that supplements education by establishing a hub of learning resources, tools and references through the Egyptian Knowledge Bank, the more serious challenge are the funds. Upgrading Education is a priority, enough funds should be secured in order to achieve the targeted objective. Currently, the country is laying the main foundation for the various stages, and modes of education. The Ministry of education is in dire need for restructuring , along with respective curriculums, teachers, skills. The current phase calls for co-ordination with international educational institutions and publishers so as to achieve the set goal of a comprehensive reform of the educational system in Egypt.
Egypt’s current Minister of education 30 years experience in education; having worked with UNESCO in the field of testing and developing a path for education reform makes him capable of leading the most important surgery Egypt needs at this point. Some may undermine his will to majorly amend and turn matters around, but wasting his time on side meaningless battles will simply waste his efforts, and will both neither add to his efforts nor push him forward.
On the other hand, it is important that the Minister share his vision, milestones and target for education reforms. It is simply a must that if this roadmap in itself is achieved that Ministries follow suit , in order to complete the road and mission towards fulfilling our dream of best education in Egyptian schools. There should be full transparency regarding all set deadlines in this regard , as such a plan is especially if obviously viable is adequate enough to get the whole country motivated.
The Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) is a remarkable step towards developing tools and resources for teachers and researchers, but the question that may remain of importance is the economies of scale in the process, so far 10,000 teachers were trained (as per the Ministry’s announcement) how much are utilising the purchased resources and do we need to expand further into purchases that may consume millions of dollars at this stage. Expanding our base of scientific research material requires both; qualified students and teachers to examine and research. We must utilise these financial resources in building labs at schools and increasing salaries for teachers, matters that are regarded as a current priority in the process of developing schools and teachers.
Developing business opportunities for youth
There are various institutions, funds and projects that work in Egypt to develop youth, out of which is the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development, Global Youth Initiative by USAID and Aga Khan Agency for Micro-finance Head Start project. Egypt signed the first project agreement with the United Nations to expand opportunities for Egyptian youth in the area of volunteerism. The UN Volunteers (UNV) programme seeks to empower youth to participate meaningfully in socio-economic development through volunteer engagement. It also launched several economic empowerment projects, such as Mushwary which provided career guidance, training and small and medium enterprise (SME) establishment for 45,000 youths aged 13 to 24, in 10 governorates across Egypt. This in addition to the Effective School to Work Transition through the “Career Guidance Project” which provided employment opportunities for 5,000 youth from five governorates, and will soon provide 10,000 more.
The Social Fund for development and the Central Bank of Egypt are playing a vital Role in supporting government and international agencies funds for developing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).On the other hand, and recently through the expanded activities towards financial inclusion at schools and universities, banks yielded a flow of new young accounts opening, a flow that needs a parallel flow of MSMEs. This can be undertaken through intensive programmes that promote funds use, follow-up of projects for target youth groups and active marketing for projects and industries that can create new jobs, especially in remote areas.
In Conclusion
It is essential to clearly recognise that our educational fall down and literacy have long roots, and are not a creation of the Arab spring or current administration and government. Acknowledging this fact is quite essential in order to manage to build a better future, and to attain such a balanced mix of quality education that can deliver a cultured, skilled and responsible caliber in the labour market. The path we chose for development will require a clear path and a plan that should be maintained by various administrations.
On the other hand, grouping funds for MSMEs under one umbrella with a business concept is essential, as it needs to utilise the potential of youth verses successful start-ups and industries of priority to the country. Such an umbrella should be equipped with an agenda of projects, a network in remote areas and staff that are capable of doing feasibility studies and action funds accordingly.
With the will to proceed forward with such an umbrella that can adopt a life-cycle approach; which is necessary in the current context, tracking the education plan, monitoring, seeking and developing business opportunities for youth added to involving schools, universities, clubs, mosques, churches as well as, private and public companies into integrating youth in building our society, we will be able to take our first step towards attaining our goal of making our human resources our primary asset.
