Cairo: Egypt’s education authorities have reduced sizes of school textbooks as the country is battling with price hikes resulting from a recent flotation of the local currency.
The Education Ministry said this week it had removed exercises from new textbooks for different school stages in an attempt to control the high cost of printing.
Moreover, some textbooks, previously taught over two semesters, have been summed up and integrated to cover the whole school year, the ministry added in a statement on Tuesday.
“This has been carried out within [educational] acceptable limits and in a way that will contribute to reducing the number of printed pages,” the statement added, without providing specific figures.
The ministry said it would upload some school lessons in an interactive form on its website, as part of the cost-cutting process.
In recent years, Egyptian education authorities have sought to curb rampant private lessons by launching a state-run education television station and placing some parts of syllabuses on CDs to be studied by schoolchildren using their personal computers.
Education Minister Tareq Shawqi said last month that private tuitions annually add up to around 30 billion Egyptian pounds (Dh6.2 billion), a phenomenal sum by Egyptian standards.
Some schoolteachers have hailed the latest cost-cutting moves that come around a month before the start of the new academic year in Egypt.
“This is a step in the right direction,” said Abdul Moneim Ahmad, a science teacher. “The [education] ministry knows well that most textbooks are ignored by students because they are poorly printed, bulky and lack in simple explanations. Therefore, students rely on study aids and private lessons instead,” Ahmad told Gulf News.
“The ministry should pay more attention to develop the content of books and make them more concise and attractive for students. It is also necessary to qualify teachers by holding training courses for them and acquainting them with advanced learning methods,” Ahmad said.
“This will reduce the money spent on printing textbooks and, at the same time, limit the spread of private lessons,” he added.
There are an estimated 21.9 million students in Egypt’s pre-university education institutions, according to official figures.
Last November, Egypt floated its pound as part of tough economic reforms.
The country, the Arab world’s most populous, with around 95 million people, has also slashed state subsidies on fuel and energy, measures that secured Egypt a bailout loan of $12 billion (Dh44 billion) over three years from the International Monetary Fund.
The steps, however, have led to steep increases in prices of various goods, including printing materials.
