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Abstract
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.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my two mentors in the Compare Writing for Publication Programme, Dr Anna Magyar and Professor Anthony Hopkin, and the two anonymous Compare reviewers, for their careful reading of earlier drafts of this article and their very useful and insightful comments.
Notes
1. An estimated 41% of the population, or about 28 million people, were under the poverty line in 2005, and absolute poverty increased from 17% in 2000 to 20% in 2005 (Alissa Citation2007).
2. 1 Egyptian Pound (EGP) = 0.10 British Pound (GBP) in August 2011 (www.xe.com).
3. Adult literacy (15+) has been officially estimated at around 70.4% in 2007 (UNDP 2010), but actual literacy skills are not independently measured across the system for actual students. Internationally comparable figures from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) examinations place education quality in Egypt below the international average, but higher than most sub-Saharan African countries (MOE Citation2006).
4. For example, of those who enrolled in secondary education in 2005/06, 32.9% went to general secondary, 56.3% studied in technical schools, 8% studied in Azhar religious schools and 2.7% studied in private general secondary schools (MOE Citation2006, Annex 2, 77).
5. Because teacher salaries are so low, official figures on them are sensitive and simply not available. This estimate is based on my own data gathering within educational districts. However, the issue is frequently discussed in the press where, for example, it is reported that 8254 out of 13,000 teachers in one rural province were hired on the 120 EGP per month temporary contracts (Al-Badil. Citation2011).
6. A study of a number of urban and rural technical and general schools in Giza, Egypt, found that more than 60% of students said that their in-school tutor is their regular school teacher and more than 30% said that their private lesson teacher is also their regular teacher (Megahed Citation2004, 144–7). In a study of a high-performing public preparatory school, Linda Herrera (Citation1992) found that only a minority of teachers used tactics of intimidation, poor teaching, favouritism, and sometimes physical punishment so that students in their class would take private lessons with them.
7. While realities in this technical school may be similar to many ‘industrial’ technical schools across the country, there is no doubt that conditions could be better in other schools, such as commercial schools and girls’ schools, due to lower teacher shortages, fewer resource problems with workshop machinery and materials, and less pressure on students to work while studying.