This study assesses the educationalprogress of Egypt, especially in basic education andidentifies the issues that still need to be addressed. Atthe level of basic education real progress has been made onnarrowing regional and reducing gender disparities, reducingclass size, eliminating multiple shifts, increasing classinstructional time, and introducing technology in theclassroom. While Egypt is to be lauded for its significantachievements, problems persist in the education sector. Ofparticular concern are the problems of the poor. The poorface numerous disadvantages in educating their children,mostly due to: more children per household, low parentaleducation, very limited access to kindergarten, and a highprivate cost of public schooling. As a result, of allchildren age seven to eleven who are not attending school,50 percent are from the poorest segment of the population.While Egypt has embarked on an ambitious and comprehensiveeducation reform program, it faces numerous challenges toattain its educational goals. Foremost among the challengesare: a) improve the quality of schooling, from primarythrough university; b) strengthen management of educationalinstitutions by decentralizing decisions, and promotingaccountability; c) increase efficiency in the use ofresources by reducing over-staffing, introducing newfinancial mechanisms, and given higher education managersincreased autonomy and accountability in internal resourceallocation; and finally, d) improve equity by ensuring thechildren of the poor are adequately prepared to beginschool, reducing private costs of education to the poor,better targeting higher education subsidies, and initiateparent education programs to improve child development inthe home. The reform program is affordable in the long runif recommendations on quality, equity and efficiency andcarried out in tandem and regularly barriers to redeploy
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