GENDER EMPOWERMEN

T

Topic:

Literacy of Adults in Egypt from

1980 to Present

Statement: What are the Effects

of the Educational Programs to Women

in Egypt?

Introduction: Egypt

Brief Information:

Location: the northeast corner of the continent of Africa

Size: approximately 997,740 sq. km

Capital: Cairo

Official language (today): Arabic

Official language (ancient): combination Semitic and Hamitic

Brief Information: Major River:

The Nile divides Egypt in half

Deserts: Libyan, Nubian, and Eastern. They were barriers of protection, shielding the people against invasion by surrounding civilizations

Topography: The highest lands are in the south and the land slopes gently toward the Mediterranean Sea. There are some mountains located on the southern Sinai peninsula. Some of these reach over 2600 meters (8530 feet high). The land at the Mediterranean is at sea level.

Brief Information: Climate:

very dry; there is almost no rainfall on a regular basis. The people depend on the annual summer floods of the Nile River for water. The floods begin in June and end in October. Without the Nile, there would likely be no Egypt.

Brief Information:

Educational Status:

Egypt has the largest overall education system in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and it has grown rapidly since the early 1990s.

The government is responsible for offering free education at all levels.

Educational Status: One in every four Egyptians is illiterate. President Hosni Mubarak declared that the

development and innovation of education is the National Project of Egypt,

President Mubarak also declared that literacy, for the rest of illiterates, is an urgent and essential objective for realizing development and increasing production.

Educational Status: 1980’s The tremendous efforts of the Revolution

since the fifties to meet the illiteracy problems are evident.

Between 1976 and 1986, a decline by 6.2 percentage points has occurred in the percent illiterate among the total population of Egypt.

Educational Status: The number of illiterates had more than

doubled from six to thirteen million during the period 1907-1976, and by 1986 this number exceeded two and half times the number of 1907 (sixteen million).

• In 1986, the literacy gender gap narrowed to 26.7 percentage points.

Educational Status:

Educational Status:

Educational Status:

Educational Status:

Educational Status: 1990s Law #8 issued in 1991 for Literacy and

Adult Education with the aim of mobilizing efforts for the organization of the comprehensive national campaign. The law stipulated the establishment of the General Organization of Literacy and Adult Education in 1992.

• National Plan of Literacy and Adult for the decade (1992-2001)

Educational Status: 1990s

Educational Status: 1990s

Educational Status: 1990s

Illiteracy rates were reduced from 49.4% in 1986 to 38.6% in 1996, i.e a reduction of 10.8% points.

• Numbers of female illiterates reached 10.3 million according to 1996 statistics, numbering 6.9 million in the rural areas (67.1%) and 3.5 million in the urban areas (32.9%).

Educational Status: 1990s

According to the 1998/99 statistics, the proportion of female enrolment has increased to 72% of the total number of enrolment in literacy classes. This should imply an improvement in literacy gender parity index.

Educational Status: 1990s

• The illiteracy rate further declined to 34.2% according to the 1999 assessment.

• Adult literacy rate estimated at 66% in 1999, as compared to 53% in 1990.

Educational Status: 2000’s

Educational Status: 2000’s

Educational Status: 2000’s

Educational Status: 2000’s

Educational Status: 2000’s

Educational Organizations and Programs

AUEED (Association of Upper

Egypt for Education and Development)

1940

AUEED leads education and development

initiatives in four main zones of Upper Egypt: Menya, Assiut, Sohag and Luxor.

constructed a center for empowering women in Akhmim, this center provided basic education and offered vocational training for women

Educational Organizations and Programs

USAID (United States Aid)

USAID Support for basic education focuses on

schools in underprivileged urban areas

Egypt’s Ministry of Education’s efforts to decentralize the education system in order to strengthen local institutional capacity, increase involvement of the community, enhance accountability, and increase performance standards.

USAID: Programs

ERP (Education Reform

Program)

ERP was a six-year program funded by USAID that aimed to increase access to and quality of formal and non-formal education, particularly for girls, in seven governorates (regions) throughout Egypt.

USAID: Programs

Egypt Environmental Education and Outreach

Program (E3OP) (2006-2008)

introduced environmental education in schools in ways that actively engaged students in their neighborhoods and local environments and established an accessible base of environmental education materials for teachers to use in the classroom.

Educational Organizations and Programs

UNESCO (United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization)

UNESCO

Its purpose is to contribute peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the UN Charter.

UNESCO: programs

It helped revitalize an education reform movement that started well before 1990 in several developing countries.

Educational Policies

Effects of Educational Programs in women

Social Aspect

Since more and more women are now educated and literate, they are

already able to express themselves without any hesitation.

Political Aspect-

The number of women in prominent positions in Egyptian politics

remains tiny, as it was under the ousted secular president, Hosni

Mubarak.

Economical AspectThe Egyptian Businesswomen’s

Partnership Program is an international project designed to enhance cooperation between

businesswomen and businesswomen’s associations in

Egypt

Projections

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