Part
01
of one
Part
01
Market Landscape for Teacher Training in Egypt - Overall market size, major players and fees. How many foreign players are there in the market and what are the fees, enrolment for this market. What is the regulatory framework for this market?
Hi. Thanks for your question to Wonder about the market landscape for teacher training in Egypt.
LANDSCAPE OF TEACHER TRAINING IN EGYPT:
Teachers must have a four-year university degree, with about half earning a Bachelor of Education. In-service training is provided by the Central Directorate for In-Service Training (CDIST) through 14 regional training centers. According to the UNESCO report, “between 2003 and 2007, a total of 55,434 trainees attended training programmes organized by the CDIST.”
There are both public and private institutions offering training of teachers in Egypt. The Ministry of education’s formal teachers’ qualification program covers instructors in the basic (or primary) and secondary education schools.
The need for better teacher training certainly exists. The report “Education in Crisis” states that: “The quality of Egyptian education is also inadequate at all levels, due to poor teacher training techniques, and private tutoring has grown over the last few years as a means of addressing the issue.”
MARKET SIZE:
According to the UNESCO report “World Data on Education” for the years 2010/11 there were over 90 thousand instructors teaching in the government general secondary schools and an additional 36,600 were teaching in the religious schools (Al-Azhar). Prep schools had an additional 200,000 teachers while Al-Azhar schools counted almost 42,000 instructors. Basic or elementary education was taught by over 300,000 teachers plus 66,300 religious school teachers.
These figures add up to the total teachers in government schools at approximately 809,000 in 2006/07. Of these, only half (415,000) had a Bachelor of Education degree.
AFFORDABILITY:
Teachers in Egypt are very poorly remunerated and many would have neither the time nor the money to pay for training. One way they increase their salaries is to tutor their students outside of class which brings in a little more money but takes time away that they may have used for personal training. State University.com reports that “In-service training, encumbered in bureaucracy and inconsistent funding, was shunned by many teachers in favor of tutoring for extra income.”
School budgets are generally small—hence the low teacher salaries—and money for training is not a large part of it. “Education in Crisis” reports: “While education expenditure in the 2011-2012 proposed budget grew by 14.5 per cent to reach £E55.6 billion, its proportion of total expenditure actually declined, from 11.7 per cent in 2010-2011 to 10.7 per cent in 2011-2012. While education expenditure has been growing in absolute terms since 2003, it has been declining in relative terms, comprising 16.2 per cent of expenditure and 4.9 per cent in total GDP in 2003. The current plans keep the proportion stable at 3.8 per cent of GDP. The contribution of education expenditure to GDP in Egypt is one of the lowest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.”
Education in Crisis says: “Teachers are also plagued with insufficient wages, and as a result, a lot of contract labor is used to address the growing number of pupils.” Contract laborers are not likely to received paid training from their schools.
Website MENA Solidarity Network, in an article dated November 2012, reports: “Teachers on permanent contracts earn between USD$65 and $115 a month in regular salary. The majority of teachers however are on temporary contracts and they earn up to USD$16 a month – some earn nothing at all – on the basis that they will obtain the money for survival by taking private tuition lessons at the end of the school day.”
After several teachers’ strikes, the government promised that higher minimum wage levels would be implemented in January 2014. Teachers would receive £E 1,201/USD153 per month but I couldn’t find any indication that this new policy has been implemented.
MAJOR PLAYERS AND FEES:
Public:
The Professional Academy for Teachers was established in 2007 is responsible for granting licenses and “validity certificates” for teachers, evaluators and trainers “as well as accrediting training program promotion standards”. It offers several programs to instruct teachers in order to raise mathematics, science, and technology teaching standards. Local teachers also take part in the international professional training programs.
Private:
In light of the information on salaries, school budgets, and teachers’ lack of time, it’s no surprise that very little information was found on private teacher training programs in Egypt. I found one school that offers classes and a second that only offers courses on line at prohibitively high cost for Egyptians. I also include information about a USAID contract for training people in technology for your interest.
1. Notting Hill College School of Teacher Training (U.K. based)
a. Diploma In Teaching Methodology: fees £E458/USD58.50
b. Teaching Young Learners Short Course: fees £E 100/USD12.77
2. International House World Organization (U.K. based): the school offers only training for learning the Arabic language on site but also offers on-line teacher training courses which may impact the market for teacher training schools.
a. Certificate in Advanced Methodology: fees £E6,127/USD782
b. Teaching Young Learners & Teenagers: fees £E6,127/USD782
3. You may be interested to know that the firm Management & Training Corporation, from Utah, won a $22 million contract to assist Egypt to train 14,000 people to improve their technology skills. Some of these people could end up teaching…but this is not strictly a teacher training program.
The “Workforce Improvement and Skill Enhancement” (WISE) project was awarded to Management & Training Corporation (MTC) in October 2015. According to its website “has a three-year contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to upgrade Egypt’s technical and vocational education and training system, enhance connections between employers and training centers, and create local structures for economic development. MTC is working directly with Egypt’s Ministry of Technical and Vocational Education and Training to implement USAID’s Workforce Improvement and Skill Enhancement project which will build a skilled labor force that will increase the nation’s productivity and reduce poverty.”
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK:
The Ministry of Education’s vision for education in this Middle Eastern country includes: “Distinguished teacher at a high level of professionalism and expertise.” The Ministry is makes decisions on educational materials and approving the necessary qualifications of teaching staff. It has three centers supporting its work: the National Center of Curricula Development, the National Center for Education Research, and the National Center for Examinations and Educational Evaluation.
The reality, according to UNESCO’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), is quite different. “Even though the national strategy for education includes teacher training as one of its priorities, it has not yet introduced systematic, formal induction programmes or accreditation processes. As a result, teacher training programmes in Egypt are scarce and low standard.
It continues: "The Ministry of Education actively cooperates with international donors in the field of teacher training but these programmes can only address selected branches of teachers and trainers. The teachers’ professional development strategy in not high on the government’s agenda, that is why teacher training is fragmented and the result of small-scale initiatives and projects. The steps put forward in the national strategy have been poorly implemented and monitored.”
According to the UNESCO report Word Data on Education for the years 2010/11, the following laws dictate the education sector in Egypt.
1. Law No. 155: established the Professional Academy for Teachers; and deals with educational staff.
2. Law No. 101/1992: regulates the establishment of private universities.
3. Law No. 52/1972: regulates the organization of private higher institutes.
4. Law No. 538: regulates technical colleges
5. Law No. 86 of 2006 established the National Authority of Educational Quality Assurance and Accreditation.
I wish I could have found more information on private teacher training programs but it appears that most teachers are trained through the public system and may receive some in-service training also from a public institution.
Thank you for asking Wonder. Please come back should you have any questions on this or any other topic.