As Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk noted when announcing this, prioritising education and healthcare is the way towards development and progress. This was the path adopted by every country that has managed to lift itself from underdevelopment and into the ranks of advanced nations. Japan, South Korea and Singapore are models for the developmental leaps that can be achieved through proper attention to the citizens’ education and health.
The Egyptian constitution reflects an awareness of this, stipulating that the government must allocate a minimum of 10 per cent of GNP to general and higher education, healthcare and scientific research. I can still hear the debates that took place over this issue in the constitutional drafting committee – the Committee of Fifty as it was called. Many of the members thought that 10 per cent was too low. As the committee’s spokesperson at the time, I held daily briefings to keep my fellow journalists abreast of its proceedings. No sooner did they quote me as saying that the committee was leaning towards that figure than prime minister Hazem Al-Beblawi phoned up the committee’s chairman, Amr Moussa, to urge him to reconsider this provision. He argued that no government could commit to such a percentage and failure to do so would render its budget unconstitutional.
In the democratic manner with which he conducted the committee’s proceedings, Moussa brought Beblawi’s concern to the attention of the members in a plenary session. There ensued a lengthy debate after which the members agreed to stick with the 10 per cent figure, as this was the internationally recognised minimum for such crucial sectors.
The government was given three years to bring its budget in line with the constitutional provision. Those three years and more have passed. Yet, successive governments have remained unable to fulfill this obligation due to the economic circumstances. Some people assumed that the government had given up on the matter altogether. Then Ahmed Kouchouk showed that, with sound management, the government can produce a budget in line with the country’s supreme legal document. Perhaps this will spur a new start in the reform of our educational system, a subject that tends to involve more talk than action. If so, we may at last find ourselves on course to genuine development and progress.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 24 April, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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