Compulsory education in Egypt has faced many changes. During the 20th century, the main feature of Egypt’s compulsory education system has been ‘change’. Over the century the system has undergone successive changes, and the lack of any long period of stability has not helped students, parents and teachers. International organisations led by developed countries have recommended basic education to Egypt, but that contrast with educational trends in those countries. The purposes and principles of basic education which are legislated in the Ministry of Education documents are inconstant with the real situation in schools and that system has many shortcomings. This book’s conclusions show that, since the 1980s, successive ministers of education have implemented successive changes, and this resulted in the current problems facing students, parents and teachers, such as low levels of student achievement, the economic burden to families of paying for private lessons, external books written and published in the private sector and reducing one year of compulsory education cycle. The most recent reform has introduced the pressing problem of how to reintroduce this ninth year.
