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After a long decline, fertility in Tunisia, as in some Arab countries like Algeria and Egypt, recorded an unexpected increasing trend over the 2000 – 2018 period. To account for such demographic change, this paper re-examined the behavior of the main fertility decline factors tested by the previous empirical studies (such as education, income, mortality, and contraceptive use) to check whether they have changed in favor of an upward fertility evolution. Deepening the analysis, it introduced three new socio-economic factors that are likely to favor fertility increase: divorce, unemployment, and longevity. The dynamic one-step generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation on a cylindrical data panel from 1998 to 2018 for eight Tunisian regions confirmed the positive effect of these new variables. Additionally, the education-fertility interaction was found to be no longer obvious. The family planning program appeared to no longer play its role in limiting fertility. The income effect overcame the substitution effect in favor of a fertility increase. The observed increasing fertility trend in Tunisia seems to be more explained by the dominance of some sociocultural factors. Thus, policymakers should seek to better focus on the family institution's behavior to sustain fertility decline and improve the efficiency of its family planning program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private institutions are increasingly visible in the higher education landscape of Egypt. Many of these institutions, however, are within the ‘demand-absorbing’ category, offered at relatively lower fees and requiring lower test scores for admission. Building on interview data, this paper looks at how the graduates of some of these institutes reflect on their learning experience. In the discourse of these graduates, the learning experience is described as ‘easy’ and less demanding. This ‘easy’ education is accepted, justified and even celebrated. Credential fetish and the social status associated with a higher education degree are central to the perpetuation of the allure of ‘easy’. However, ‘easy’ education is also condemned for its compromised quality and low status. The paper seeks to situate these competing and overlapping discourses on private institutes within the analysis of the structure of the education system in Egypt and the global neoliberal tide for education reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

English language teaching (ELT) research in Egypt is about four decades old now. The study reported in this paper attempted to identify the main trends in the ELT research in the Egyptian context though analysing the research areas, topics, contexts, and methods in 143 published studies and comparing the orientations noted in them to the ones revealed previously in the unpublished studies reported by graduate students in the country. Though some relative differences were found between the published and unpublished studies in the areas and contexts researched, both types of studies were similar in the research methods used and nature of the topics covered. Specifically, the experimentation, data quantification, and stereotyping aspects remarkably noted in these studies have caused some methodological, topical, and contextual research gaps in ELT research. The paper highlights the following four main causes of the dominant ELT research trends: the local educational research culture, the inappropriate interdisciplinarity approach, reading sources and institutional regulations, and researchers’ over-reliance on convenience sampling. In light of these results and interpretations, the author suggests some steps for reforming ELT research practices in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Middle East and North Africa region has the world's lowest returns to education. This paper examines what the value of a degree is using nationally representative labour market surveys from Egypt (2012), Jordan (2010) and Tunisia (2014). Specifically, the authors estimate Mincer models for levels and years of schooling. They find that returns are highest in Tunisia and lowest in Egypt, although all three countries fall short of the global average. Higher education is where returns are greatest. They also analyse the returns by sub-groups: sex; age group; and sector. The returns are higher for women than men in Egypt. The younger generation has lower returns than the older generation in Egypt. The private sector in Egypt and Tunisia has lower returns than the public sector. One reason for the low returns is that many individuals are overeducated relative to position requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction to Engineering is the first engineering course American University in Cairo students take upon admission to the engineering program. It is required of students in all disciplines of engineering. It is a one-credit-hour course that covers topics including history of engineering, engineering fields of specializations, the engineering profession, engineering communications, engineering ethics, and societal obligations. Community-based learning (CBL) was introduced into the course via the required course project. The project was to design toys for children at a school in a disadvantaged squatter community in Old Cairo, Egypt, where infrastructure is poor and education and social mobility can be very limited. The project was carried out in partnership with a non-governmental organization based in Old Cairo. This paper shows how the introductory engineering course was redesigned to integrate CBL while meeting the stated ABET course outcomes. Included are detailed instructions on the tools and structure of the project to provide an example for others wishing to adapt some of these tools to other courses. The paper presents the outcome assessments and survey results to evaluate the project’s success at meeting the stated outcomes and includes a discussion on the benefits to the students and the community partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The displacement of thousands of people from countries facing war and violence has resulted in a refugee crisis that most host countries were not prepared to cope with. As a significant number of them are children, the education systems and educators were found unprepared to respond to the rights of refugee children for education. In this paper, we will present a learning design methodology entitled CARE aimed at helping teachers, especially in the early years education to develop student-driven learning activities focusing on refugee responsive teaching and learning. The CARE methodology has been developed through the experiences gained from training interventions with teacher educators in Egypt, a country that has received thousands of refugees in recent years. We have used an exemplary theme entitled 'Refugees Crossing the Aegean: Learning from History' to show the innovative aspects of the CARE learning design methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the presence of women's migration from Syria to Egypt, until recently the extent of their contribution and influence has received insufficient attention. This paper aims to feminize the narrative of migration from Syria to Egypt by positioning women more centrally in this narrative through their cultural activities, especially the establishment of women's magazines. The Syrian/Lebanese and Egyptian phases of these women's lives are treated as a continuum and it is shown that their home life experience in Syria shaped their later life in Egypt. Conceptually, the paper envisions the diffusion of ideas resulting from the migration of Syrian women to Egypt towards the end of the nineteenth century as a process of regionalization, which is termed cross-glocalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we examine the influence of gender, sibling characteristics and birth order on the schooling attainment of school-age Egyptian children. We use multivariate analysis to simultaneously examine three different schooling outcomes of a child having 'no schooling', 'less than the desired level of schooling', and an 'age-appropriate level of schooling'. Estimation results show strong evidence of gender, birth order and sibling characteristics on schooling attainment, with female and rural children particularly disadvantaged. Interestingly, our results show adverse effects on the schooling outcomes of first-born male children. Finally, we show that an improvement in parental education has large, positive and significant effects on the schooling attainment of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of European-style education in Egypt during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as Egyptian reformers and governments, in their desire to create relevant and effective educational institutions, began looking to Europe for inspiration. The resulting institutions utilized modern methods while preserving the local character of education, often straddling the line between the strictly European and Egyptian. With these compromises and negotiations, ultimately, one of the most influential legacies of European education was the belief in education as a "cure" for all the ills of modern Egyptian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Egypt, girls' work primarily takes the form of domestic tasks, which are not considered in many studies of child labor. This paper investigates the effect of girls' work on their school attendance. It uses a modified bivariate probit approach to estimate the effect of work on schooling while allowing for the simultaneous determination of the two outcomes. It presents evidence that the substantial burden of girls' domestic work leads to lower rates of school attendance. Policies that attempt to ban the labor-force work of children will have practically no effect on girls' education in Egypt, while interventions reducing the drudgery of household labor through, for example, improved water and sanitation infrastructure, have better prospects for success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine if there are gender differences in schooling attainment and the extent to which these differences are exacerbated for rural children in Egypt. Using a nationally representative cross-sectional survey, our estimation results find strong support for the hypothesis that being male and living in urban areas significantly improves child schooling. We show that relative to a female child who is "never enrolled" in school, a male child is over twice as likely to be currently attending school, and over two-and-a-half times more likely to have some schooling. These positive effects are particularly strong for rural male children. There are also regional variations, with a child (male or female) living in Upper Rural Egypt having a significantly lower likelihood of being currently enrolled. Finally, our estimation results point to large positive effects of father's education on the probability of current enrolment for all children. Mother's education, however, improves only the likelihood of current enrolment for female children, with no significant effect on male children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall purpose of this research is to further our understanding of how students perceive service quality in Egypt's private universities. The paper also tests the SERVQUAL dimensions in higher education within an Arab, non-Western context. A sample of 508, students from four private universities in Egypt participated in the study. Student questionnaires based on the Arabic version of SERVQUAL instrument were distributed during classes and collected from participants immediately upon completion. Importance-performance (I-P) analysis distributed the SERVQUAL's 22 items among the grid's four quadrants. The results highlighted a three-factor solution with 79 per cent of variance explained. This result does not support the 5 components original SERVQUAL. The results of I-P analysis revealed that 9 attributes are located in quadrant I (concentrate here), 2 in quadrant II (keep up the good work), 8 in quadrant III (lower priority), and 3 attributes in quadrant IV (possible overkill). This study has provided some insights into the factors associated with service quality in higher education within an Arab, non-Western context. The more is known of how students perceive service quality in higher education, the more quickly and efficiently quality can been enhanced, thereby allowing universities to capitalize on opportunities that will emerge as private education markets open in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a US foreign aid project to promote use of new technologies in Egyptian education. Though the project sought to improve teaching and learning, an examination of implementation indicates how goals of Westernization ended up taking precedence. These included a focus on bringing Egyptian educators to the US and on showcasing US hardware and software. This underlying emphasis on Westernization weakened the project's potential contribution to educational improvement. However, grass roots Egyptian teacher educators found ways to assert their own voices in the project through small-scale and locally appropriate uses of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many educational reform initiatives worldwide do not result in deep and sustainable change. Limited studies have looked at reform initiatives in countries like Egypt. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to examine educational reform initiatives in Egypt throughout modern history using a transformative leadership lens, and to explore the perceptions of educational leaders regarding the more contemporary reform initiatives. The findings show that historically, large-scale reform initiatives in Egypt, which had transformative and sustainable results, were typically associated with a more comprehensive ideological inclination. More contemporary educational reform attempts were not transformative because these were perceived to be top-down reforms that were driven by foreign-aid agencies, and had no support from stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the needs in physics in Egypt and discusses ways in which the U.S. aid program could give effective help. There is a great shortage of equipment for instruction and research at the universities and even the Atomic Energy Establishment at En Shass which has adequate equipment and lacks the trained personnel to use it. The relatively prohibitive cost of the U.S. and westem European equipment over that from the Soviet Union and her satellites makes it difficult for the U.S. to help the United Arab Republic remedy her lack of equipment. The Russian bids on specified electronic equipment run from one third to one half of the prices asked by the U.S. and western European firms.

This article examines petitions submitted to the Egyptian state by students and parents over the span of a century. These sources reveal that Egyptians from across the economic spectrum were shifting their construction of schooling in response to changing political and educational policies and evolving conceptions of educational need. Over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, parents and students were increasingly appealing to discourses concerning education, girls' schooling and nationalism as a way to frame their personal pursuits as an extension of national advancement. As a result, petitioners saw education not as a matter of charity or luxury, but rather as a fundamental way to prevent 'losing' a brighter future. Ultimately, this shift in the concept of educational need underwrote the development of mass educational systems of the twentieth century as a cornerstone of the relationship between even the poorest of citizens and the Egyptian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a quasi-experimental pre-post assessment study utilizing an anonymous self-administered questionnaire to assess Egyptian medical students’ awareness about responsible conduct of research (RCR) and research ethics. Students’ were assessed before and after an RCR awareness campaign. Our results showed that most of the pre-campaign respondents were not familiar with the basic principles and terms of RCR. An increase in the awareness about RCR across all discussed topics was noted following the campaign. We concluded that an educational awareness campaign is effective in increasing medical students’ awareness about RCR and should be incorporated into current medical school curricula in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egypt promises ‘education for all’. Primary attendance and completion have increased substantially. Still, many children remain out of school. There remain questions about the quality of education. Since the early 1990s, community-based education (CBE) has been part of Egypt’s educational programme. Community-based education is meant to educate girls living in isolated communities who failed to enter school on time, or dropped out, but wish to rejoin formal schooling. Existing literature says CBE provides superior education and empowers girls. A criterion referenced assessment of these goals and claims collected data on students in three types of schools: CARE multi-grade schools, other community/one-classroom schools and regular government schools. Out-of-school girls were also interviewed. This study finds that CBE in Egypt is meeting neither the criteria laid out in project descriptions nor the accomplishments claimed in the community school literature. Still there remains a need for a well-designed CBE programme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Egypt is currently attempting to introduce a greater formative use of assessment while maintaining a public examination system. This study investigates teacher beliefs about the purposes of assessment in Egypt, using the Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment (TCoA) inventory. The TCoA inventory elicits responses about four main factors: Improvement, School Accountability, Student Accountability and Irrelevance. A large sample of (n?=?507) Egyptian pre-service and in-service teachers completed an Arabic version of the TCoA inventory. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the Egyptian teachers’ responses against the pre-existing New Zealand model, which was found to be inadmissible. Consequently, an ecologically rational three-factor model was found. The model yielded a strong positive relationship between Improvement and Student Accountability, consistent with previous studies. It is argued that greater changes to the examination system are required if teacher beliefs are expected to be more positive about the priority of formative, improvement-oriented uses of assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most secondary school students in Egypt enrol in private tutoring in almost all subjects throughout the school year. A large proportion of students have stopped attending school altogether due to their reliance on tutoring. This study of how educational markets are perpetuated at school level finds that in the technical track catering to the working classes, the market is forced upon students through physical and verbal intimidation by teachers receiving below subsistence wages. In the more middle class general secondary track, pressure to enrol in tutoring is less direct and the market is promoted as a necessity for competitive exam readiness, despite its unclear dividends. The result has been a de-facto privatization of secondary education facilitated by a state that has determined the material conditions of teachers, failed to prevent related abuse and corruption, and reduced its investment in education to the point that the market has effectively emptied out and displaced public schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty, inequality, unemployment, torture and corruption were among the main reasons why millions of Egyptians protested to end 30 years of Mubarak's rule in January 2011. The speed with which the regime has fallen and its fragility surprised the world. This is mainly because of the false image of a stable, prosperous and progressive Egypt propagated by the state, ignoring another Egypt, a poor, suffering and repressed one. The failure to see the latter Egypt led to the fall of the former. The aim of this article is to tell a 'tale of two Egypts' by contrasting the experiences and voices of poor Egyptians with the misleading figures reported by the state. The analysis shows how the state was able to provide Egyptians with growth without equity, education without inspiration, employment without security, health services without care and voting without any real impact on political processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigates the case of community participation in the Egyptian education with special focus on Fayoum governorate - province - and its experience in developing Boards of Trustees (BOTs) in public schools. Through a field survey with boards of trustees' members, their perception of the BOTs efficiency, effectiveness and problems is analyzed with reference to the theoretical literature and other international experiences. Main findings point to the fact that the Fayoum model is in conformance with the ongoing paradigm in education calling for increasing shared responsibility for provision. Although respondents were generally optimistic about the potential opportunities for BOTs improving the quality of the educational process, yet their evaluation of the real level of their current effectiveness, was not similarly so. Evidently, more needs to be done to transform the experience of the establishment and operationalization of the BOTs, from being merely a form of pseudo participation, into being more genuine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the role of experience in relation to teachers' beliefs and practices. The study adopted a social-cultural constructivist perspective using an interpretive approach. The research was guided by teachers' interpretations of their experiences related to teaching science through Science-Technology-Society (STS) issues. These interpretations are re-interpreted to find meaningful conceptual categories (grounded in the data) from which to build a model to understand the influence of experiences within socio-Islamic culture on teachers' beliefs and practices. Data was collected from ten teachers using interviews and observations. The findings of this study suggest that it was mainly teachers' personal religious beliefs and experiences that shaped their beliefs and practices. The research also led to a model, constructed on the basis of the data analysis, which suggests an explanation of how teachers' personal religious beliefs and experiences influence their beliefs and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explored how cross-cultural collaboration involving university lecturers from Norway (the North) and Egypt (the South), and student-teachers from Egypt, can be an arena for facilitating student-teachers' reflection and for challenging student-teachers' preconceived beliefs and perspectives about disability and education. The findings, based on interview data, showed that an emphasis on reflection, exploration and evaluation rather than on drills and repetition was both unexpected and unfamiliar for most of the Egyptian student-teachers. Some of the Egyptian and some of the foreign lecturers were able to encourage student-teachers to reflect, although some of the foreign lecturers had a tendency to lecture as they had done at home. Lecturers who wanted to pursue teaching methods that enhanced reflection needed to prioritise time for this, even if the majority of the student-teachers asked for more information, more facts and for presentations of “the right methods” for teaching learners with disabilities. As the findings in this study illustrate, the partner in the North carries a major responsibility for critically considering the request for expertise because the participants in the South may not necessarily question and challenge the authority of well-educated professionals from the North. It may not be sufficient for lecturers and supervisors to be well-qualified practitioners within their home culture. They should be context sensitive, have an inquiring and accepting attitude, and experience challenges, encounters and exposures in the project country over time. Competence in approaches in teacher education is also required, although this meta-competence may not be explicitly requested by those concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a Muslim migration of ideas that have travelled east from Egypt to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, becoming progressively more extreme. Diminishing the extremism of contemporary Islamic discourse requires attention to the basic 'software' of education. It was not religion in schoolbooks that created the present situation, but rather a lack of free debate and serious effort to create modern educational systems founded on ideals of intellectual excellence, administrative accountability and critical thinking. Any attempt at reform should take as its starting point the three hegemonic models -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan -- that shape education in the Muslim world today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the establishment of the Free Popular University or Università Popolare Libera (UPL) and its role in the broader pattern of anarchist activity and the development of the labor movement in late nineteenth century Egypt. Aims and objectives of the UPL; Political and socio-economic changes and the development of working class political radicalism and militant labor movement in the country; Failure of the UPL to meet its objectives due to limited financial and political resources of the anarchist movement.

For the last decade, the concept of a "digital divide" has framed people's understanding of technology's relationship to equity and development. This article critiques theoretically the digital divide concept and supports this critique by examining a case study of technology and education in Egypt. The study illustrates the social embeddedness of technology and the intertwining of computer access with broader issues of political power, thus refuting simplistic notions of divides to be overcome through provision of equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the relevance of the Italian schools in Egypt from 1922-1940. Division of Italian schools in Egypt; Tasks of Italian schools in Egypt; Problem of studying foreign languages.

Examines the education system in Egypt. Domination of Egypt's education by school leaving certificate; Egypt as a victim of the `diploma disease'; Factors against Egypt's efforts to reform its assessment system; Perception of school qualifications as a means to succeed in Egypt.