Arab education 'falling behind'

By Ian Pannell
BBC News, Cairo

It's the start of the school day and hundreds of small children squeeze into the dusty playground.

Average class size at a state primary school is 60 children

Shrill orders pour out of a rusty loudspeaker screwed onto the wall. The children dutifully shuffle into line, open up their lungs and bellow their allegiance to God and Egypt.

The school day at Othman Bin-Affan Primary School has begun.

First there is a prayer from the Koran and then there is the National Anthem.

The children shout and clap and turn on the spot as the loudspeaker crackles and spits, exhorting the pupils to listen, repeat and obey.

The last few stragglers are let in to a school that's so full that it is forced to operate two shifts a day.

Two thousand children start the day at eight in the morning and another 2,000 begin shortly after lunch.

The average class size is more than 60 and the facilities are poor.

Falling behind

The World Bank thinks education in schools like this is falling behind.

In a lengthy analysis of the Middle East and North Africa it says the quality of education is below other regions like parts of Asia and Latin America.

The disadvantages [of a private education] are only financial, which is a big thing but it's a good investment for the kids. We're not leaving them anything but their education so we want them to be prepared." Sherif Amer

The report commended countries for improving access to education, in particular for reducing the gender gap.

But in a region where the population is getting younger, the World Bank warns that schools are not giving children the skills they need to get jobs or attract inward investment.

In particular the bank says the quality of teaching in many Arab countries is too low.

Like most state schools in Egypt, the children At Othman Bin-Affan Primary are taught by rote.

The teacher reads from a book, the children repeat and so the lesson goes.

Many parents in Egypt supplement the lessons in the classroom with private lessons at home, often with the same teachers.

Those parents who have more money tend to opt out of the national education system altogether.

Different world

On the outskirts of Cairo, in a comfortable apartment block, the Amer family are also getting ready for school.

Sherif and his wife Angy have three children. They all attend a newly opened private school that follows the Canadian education system.

Private schooling is way beyond the means of most Egyptians

Sherif says that private schools have advantages and disadvantages.

"The disadvantages are only financial, which is a big thing but it's a good investment for the kids. We're not leaving them anything but their education so we want them to be prepared."

It is a boom time for the private education system in Egypt as more and more families make similar choices. But as Sherif says, it is not cheap. The family spends 25% of its income on education.

The school they have chosen for their children, the Heritage School, seems to exist in a different world to Othman Bin-Affan Primary.

It is bright and clean. The class sizes are small and every wall is a brightly coloured testament to the children's work.

Forgetting everything

Heritage School director Mohammed Awara is critical of the state system.

WORLD BANK REPORT The Road Not Traveled : Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa (3.4 MB) Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here

"It restricts the children to just the book, learning all the time, spoon feeding the children all the time. At the end, after the exams, they tend to forget everything," he says.

There are varying degrees of success in the private market in Egypt and not every school is a shining example of best practice.

Clearly the kind of school that the Amer family have chosen is far beyond the financial means of the vast majority of people not just in Egypt but in much of the Arab world.

But the World Bank says that if this region wants better results then its schools must start to improve and quickly.