The Ministry of Education and Technical Education recently announced the key findings of a study on education reform efforts, conducted in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Egypt and the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
The report affirmed that Egypt’s education system is undergoing a genuine transformation and rapid reform. It explained that this transformation has required major and sustained efforts from all employees of the ministry concerned.
Minister of Education Mohamed Abdel-Latif said that the key features of the fundamental changes witnessed by the system over more than 20 months include developing curricula in line with the latest international standards to promote innovation, significantly expanding digital transformation, and upgrading the technological infrastructure in schools.
“These changes have also included establishing new schools, expanding applied technology schools, and linking education to the needs of the labour market,” he said, adding that the reform efforts have now moved from postponed ambition to tangible reality.
“We have implemented the boldest reform programme in Egypt’s modern history, supported by a strong political will and a clear national strategy,” Abdel-Latif said.
The report confirmed that learning inside schools is now being more effectively achieved through broad reforms and other interventions across the entire education system, foremost among them the development of reading and writing skills.
It reported improvements in several key indicators, including student attendance rates, which have increased almost six-fold, and classroom numbers, which have declined at the primary stage from 63 pupils in the 2023-2024 academic year to 41 in 2025-2026.
Previously, around 2,000 classrooms each had more than 100 students. The number of school days has also increased from 110 to 174 days, and the shortage of core-subject teachers has been addressed.
The report lauded the national Arabic-language skills development programme, implemented by the ministry through the National Centre for Examinations and Educational Evaluation in cooperation with UNICEF Egypt. The programme included testing 1.38 million students, training 30,000 teachers, and applying the programme across all of Egypt’s 27 governorates.
Implementing the programme led to improvements in students’ reading and writing skills, alongside improvements in other indicators showing increased effectiveness, the report noted. During the first phase of the programme’s implementation, which covered 10 governorates from February to May 2025, 45.5 per cent of students suffered from weak reading and writing skills.
In the second phase, which covered 10 governorates from October to December 2025, the percentage of students suffering from weak reading and writing skills fell to 32.4 per cent. In the third phase, which covered seven governorates from February to May 2026, the percentage of students suffering from weak reading and writing skills declined to 13.9 per cent.
According to the report, the introduction of weekly assessments tied to students’ grades was a key factor behind the return to more regular school attendance. Findings from focus-group discussions showed that 94 per cent of participants viewed attendance as directly linked to assessment outcomes and their impact on grades.
The report showed that 81.6 per cent of the school principals surveyed confirmed that attendance rates had increased compared with the previous year. In addition, 74 per cent of teachers reported a significant rise in student attendance in class.
The qualitative findings in the report supported these indicators, as most teachers and school leaders explained that attendance and regular school attendance were among the most prominent positive changes witnessed during the academic year.
According to the report, class sizes declined following a 20 per cent increase in classroom capacity, resulting from the conversion of more than 45,000 spaces within schools into classrooms and the return of around 53,000 other spaces to educational use.
The report confirmed that the nationwide shortage of core-subject teachers, amounting to close to 470,000 teachers, had been addressed, positively affecting the effectiveness of the educational process.
The report indicated that around 133,000 teachers working on a per-class basis had joined the education system. New teachers were also recruited according to the needs of different governorates. In addition, technical mechanisms were introduced to increase lesson times, and school timetables were reorganised to allow for an increase in the number of school weeks and a reduction in the number of weekly classes.
The report confirmed that these measures had contributed to expanding actual teaching capacity by 33 per cent, supporting the stability of the educational process and improving schools’ ability to absorb the increase in student attendance rates.
It indicated that teachers had received broad training support as part of the education reform efforts, noting that around 70 per cent of teachers had received training.
According to the report, curriculum development has included the restructuring of 94 curricula. This has included simplifying Arabic-language textbooks, redesigning the social studies curriculum, updating English-language content, and introducing programming and artificial intelligence into the first-year secondary school curriculum.
It further noted that financial incentives provided to teachers had played a key role in supporting the implementation of reforms within the education system.
The assessment of Egypt’s education reforms was based on an extensive field process and a strong research methodology, carried out by researchers from UNICEF and the National Centre for Examinations and Educational Evaluation.
It was based on three main principles: random sampling; segmentation by governorate and educational stage; and the verification of results through multiple sources using seven independent sources of evidence, strengthening the reliability and accuracy of the findings.
The scope of the report extended to all of Egypt’s 27 governorates, with the participation of around 11,500 teachers and almost 2,500 school principals. It also included field visits to schools in all the governorates and 742 interviews and focus group discussions.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
Short link: