On behalf of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Republic The Minister of Education participates in the launching activities of the “Innovative Financing for Education” coalition

On behalf of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Republic, Dr. Reda Hegazy, Minister of Education and Technical Education, participated today in a meeting with Ms. Amina Mohamed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, to discuss the launch of the “Innovative Financing for Education” coalition IFFED, which was held virtually.

In his speech, Dr. Reda Hegazy said that Egypt has the largest educational system in the Middle East and North Africa, where education services are provided in more than 46,000 public schools and 7,000 private schools, to nearly 25 million students and nearly one million teachers, pointing out that Egypt is facing a major challenge in the population increase that leads to an increase in the number of students every year to nearly 800,000 students, which necessitates a significant increase in spending on education.

He explained that education is a top priority for the government, but in light of the global economic crises and what all countries have gone through after the Covid 19 crisis, this has led to an acceleration of the challenges faced by governments in order to improve the quality of education, in addition to the priorities of countries such as providing food and energy, which Some countries have had to cut spending on education.

He pointed out that despite this, Egypt continued to increase the volume of spending on education, as it carried out, in recent years, a comprehensive educational reform process by resorting to innovative solutions to meet challenges. Numerous digital platforms, development and creation of educational channels.

He continued, "The Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) is a unique model that crystallizes reform processes, which can contribute as one of the alternatives to distance education for the largest number of students from different countries, and is not limited to Egypt only."

He added, "The Egyptian state also faced a great challenge in order to improve the quality of education through the development of curricula and evaluation processes and the development of the society's prevailing thought about education by memorization and indoctrination, so the Ministry carried out a comprehensive development process for educational curricula for the various educational levels, and developed the assessment and examination system in conjunction with professional development For teachers in order to keep pace with the state's plans for digital transformation.

Hegazy emphasized that the ministry focused on developing technical and vocational education and strengthening its links to match the needs of the global market in the twenty-first century, establishing a number of applied technology schools and establishing an authority to ensure accreditation and quality of technical education.

He stressed the importance of reaching a global agreement to solve the crises that countries, especially low-income and low-middle-income countries, may face, in light of the global crises after the Covid-19 pandemic, which calls us all to think about resorting to unconventional and innovative solutions in order to bridge the deficit in spending on education.

The Minister of Education explained that education needs rapid and sustainable financing plans, and for that, Egypt has cooperated with development partners towards making many efforts that help in the education reform process, saying: "For example, the World Bank is supporting Egypt in reforming the educational system, UNICEF, as the coordinator of Egypt's joining the Global Partnership Fund, supports the Ministry in developing the education sector plan on the verge of completion and sharing it with all concerned parties and stakeholders locally and internationally, in addition to many forms of cooperation with development partners in an effort to improve spending efficiency.

He added, it turns out to us that those strategies adopted by the Ministry of comprehensive development of educational curricula in line with global standards and skills of the twenty-first century in partnership with international and local experiences, in addition to the establishment of the Egyptian Knowledge Bank as a presidential initiative to become as the largest educational platform in Africa and the Middle East, which enabled Egypt By providing a unique model that can be exported to the region and adapted to the needs of each country in the form of a set of educational programs and projects, any additional funding opportunity makes it an important resource for the advancement of education in the entire region.

Dr. Reda Hegazy, Minister of Education and Technical Education, concluded his participation, saying: “I affirm Egypt’s welcome to launch the “IFFED” innovative financing alliance to address the education and skills crisis in the world in order to increase the volume of spending on education and share experiences with other countries.”