Page 8 - ELG1601 Jun Issue 437

Page 8 ELmarket report June 2016

Egypt’s mountain to climb

Matt Salusbury on the immense challenges faced by state-sector ELT

he current state of Eng-
lish teaching in Egypt
Tis shockingly poor, but
there’s considerable enthusiasm
nationally for the language. This
offers hope that Egyptian ELT
can eventually be improved.
That was the message from
the presentation of the British
Council’s English Language
Teaching and learning in Egypt:
an Insight report (http://tinyurl.
com/BCEgyptreport). In March
the Gazette attended the report’s Courtesy Hamish McIlwraith / McIlwraith Education
London launch.
Dr Ahmed Hashish, under-
secretary at the Ministry of
Education, speaking in Arabic
via a translator, said that English
is ‘the first foreign language in
Egypt and the second language FIRST CHOICE English is ‘the first foreign language in Egypt’ according to Dr Ahmed Hashish
after the mother tongue Arabic’.
English is taught from primary primary school teacher trainees in about two million teachers.’ the school leaving certificate –
school all the way up to univer- a British Council CiPELT course, Youth unemployment is now at in which you’ll need a score of
sity entrance, and in ‘language the Centre for Educational Lead- 35.7 per cent, higher even than over 98 per cent to get into medi-
schools [bilingual schools] ership, and to employers and Palestine. There are 200,000 cal school, for example. There’s
maths and science are taught parents about their attitudes to head teachers and inspectors a lot of rote learning and teach-
in English’. Dr Hashish added, English. The Ministry of Educa- that reformers will need to get ing to exams as a consequence,
‘The most important challenge tion also distributed surveys to on board. The 30,000 trained in with heated debates in the news-
that we face is the English lan- public schools for the report. The CiPELT (the British Council’s papers and on television about
guage. English teachers are in focus of the report was on qual- Certificate in Primary English what’s happening in the national
need of speaking and writing ity, standards and ‘re-establishing Language Teaching) are tiny exams.
skills’ in English, while ‘there public trust’. compared to the school body. The inadequacies of Egypt’s
is a shortage of teachers to teach Some figures give an idea of The population pressure on public education have led to
the English language in some the scale of the task. Egypt is a Egypt means that the ‘actual dependence on a booming ‘de
provinces of Egypt’. ‘young country’, with most of physical size of classrooms’ is facto parallel education system’
Educational consultant Ham- the population under twenty. becoming an issue. in the private sector. With ‘lit-
ish McIlwraith, co-author with According to Jonathan Gayther, So numerous are the chal- tle public trust in state-provided
Alistair Fortune of the report, director of the British Council lenges facing ELT it’s hard to education … parents put their
talked to Ministry of Education Egypt, one in four of all Arabs see where to begin efforts for its faith in private tutoring’, says
people, officials at the National is Egyptian, and the country’s improvement. The report’s most the report, and ‘families spend
Centre for Examinations and
population is expected soon to
some $2 billion on private tuition
important recommendation is
Who reads the Evaluation, Ain Shams Uni- reach 140 million. The city of that ‘teachers need to be more per year’ – equal to a quarter of
Cairo’s population is between
versity, some of the Al Azhar
the total state education budget.
valued with salaries improved
ELgazette? Institutes (see the February 2016 14 and 20 million, depending on as an immediate priority. Teach- The report adds that families
Gazette, page 13), university and
who you ask.
are ‘pressured and intimidated
ers also need considerable help
in improving their English lan-
Dr Hashish said, ‘We have
schools inspectors, trainers and
by poorly paid teachers to enrol
guage proficiency.’
ing’. In some cases teachers will
At one university teacher train- their children in private tutor-
ing department McIlwraith found withhold material from lessons
‘inappropriate teacher qualifi- so they can teach it to children in
cations’ and not enough actual their paid-for after-hours private
training, with an absence of teach- tutoring instead.
ing practice. BA English graduates Meanwhile, Egypt’s public-
can teach all levels, while those sector universities are ‘struggling
taking a BEd in English only start even to deliver the basics’.
looking at the curriculum in their The immense size of Egypt’s
third year, and in their two-week tertiary education student body
placement they often do little means that technology and
more than observe classes. ‘blended learning solutions’
Feedback from the trainees of will have to play some part in
a British Council-run CipELT bringing about improvements,
CHECK course included, ‘This although McIlwraith notes that
is first time I’ve been given ‘a range of solutions is needed’.
Copyright Matt Salusbury
ROOM FOR OPTIMISM Hamish McIlwraith presenting his report something to study on my own.’ The ‘Understanding Ielts’ free
in London to an audience which included senior Egyptian officials Learner autonomy out in the prov- online course delivered by the
inces is new, says McIlwraith. Open University’s FutureLearn
The Ministry of Educa- arm recently ‘went viral’ in
tion textbook series Hello! has Egypt, for example. One of the
Can you ‘noble ambitions … working Egyptian EFL teachers present
at the launch noted that it’s ‘very
in groups, critical discussion’,
but these don’t get much of a
important we have courses for
prove it? look-in when you have a poorly free’, as teachers’ salaries ‘don’t
allow us to pay for very expen-
paid teacher with a low level of
English teaching a class of up to
sive courses’.
100 – ‘not uncommon in some McIlwraith predicts Egypt
of Egypt’s poorer districts’. will need ‘seven to nine years’
Then we’ll minutes each in the average immense practical challenges,
of ELT reform. But whatever the
Listening and speaking get four
school English lesson in Egypt,
‘engagement of Egyptians with
the British Council, the UK and
and student-to-student interac-
print it. tion is rare. English is higher than average in
English language knowledge
Egypt’ compared to the rest of
for maths and science teacher
trainees is still voluntary, and some the Middle East and north Africa
(Mena) region, according to
maths and science teachers and survey reports. English courses
their students don’t even know the have a big uptake. Egyptians are
400 officials in 48 countries Get your story heard English word ‘square’. Some of ‘really up for education reform’,
says Eric Lawrie, regional Eng-
the British Council’s efforts are in
receive their copy every month training maths and science teach- lish director for British Council
Mena. The need for improve-
ers to teach in English.
– courtesy of the British Council EL Gazette Then there are the exams ment in ELT is ‘absolutely
www.elgazette.com at three stages of the learner’s understood – they are more keen
school career, culminating in than anybody to be able to deal
the ‘life-defining exam’ that is with this’. n
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