The decree includes an amendment of a previously-signed partnership agreement between Egypt's cabinet and the French Development Agency (AFD) to provide a grant worth 500,000 Euros to the TrèFLE project – a project that supports the teaching of the French language in public schools.

Thursday’s decree will benefit nearly 3 million students in Egyptian public schools, according to a previous statement by the ministry.

The decision to teach French was first announced on 9 March in a meeting between Egypt's Minister of Education and Technical Education Reda Hegazy and Ambassador of France to Cairo Marc Baréty to celebrate the TrèFLE.

TrèFLE is a project funded by the AFD.

According to Hegazy, the project has trained 507 teachers and inspectors of French as a second language.

These will, in turn, train 13,000 other teachers of French, according to Hegazy.

The project started in 2020 as a joint project implemented by the French Institute in Egypt, France Education, and Réseau Canopée.

  “Egypt pays special attention to strengthening cooperation with France in various fields, especially with regard to transferring French expertise and technology in all development fields to Egypt,” Hegazy said, noting that the TrèFLE is one of the fruits of strengthening cooperation between the two sides.