WIKINDX Resources
|
Galal Ahmed (2002). The Paradox of Education and Unemployment in Egypt. Cairo (EG) : The Egyptian Center for Economic Studies. En ligne : <http://www.worldbank.org/mdf/mdf4/papers/galal.pdf>.
Added by: Agnès Cavet (01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 Europe/Paris) Last edited by: Agnès Cavet (18 May 2009 16:50:19 Europe/Paris) |
| Resource type: Report/Documentation BibTeX citation key: Galal2002a  |
Categories: General Keywords: économie de l'éducation, Egypte, soutien scolaire Creators: Galal Publisher: The Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (Cairo (EG)) |
Views: 2445/6010
Views index: 0% Popularity index: 0% |
| URLs http://www.worldba ... 4/papers/galal.pdf |
| Abstract |
|
"The empirical evidence dealing with education has highlighted a number of paradoxes, most of which apply to Egypt (Birdsall and O’Connell, 1999; UNDP, 1998; El Baradei, 2000; Fergany, 1998; Shafik, 1996; Shihata, 1999). For example, it has been pointed out that big spending on education is often associated with small returns. Although governments often stress fairness in education, the literature has brought to the forefront a systematic bias in favor of higher education at the expense of basic education, and boys at the expense of girls. It further uncovered the “false entitlement�? of free education, with the surge in the cost of private tutoring and other incidentals. This paper deals with yet another paradox, namely, the persistent mismatch between the supply of and demand for certain graduates. While this observation reflects deficiencies on the supply of and demand for labor broadly, the main focus of this paper is on education reforms.1 The success of education reforms in Egypt over the past 30 years is not in question. As will be elaborated below, more Egyptian boys and girls are now better educated than ever before. Literacy rates have improved and education has reached social classes previously denied access to the system. What is becoming evident, however, is that the education system is not providing markets with the quantity and quality of educated individuals most in demand. Clearly something is not working. To better the education system and make it more consistent with the demand for labor, it is important to address such questions as: why did past reform efforts fall short of their objectives? Is there an alternative approach to future reform efforts? Finally, what are the components of the recommended approach? In response to these questions, this paper advocates moving away from viewing education as an “engineering�? process to viewing it as an economics phenomenon. Under the proposed approach, education reforms go beyond building schools, training teachers and improving the curriculum and focus on the incentives and returns to education, while paying attention to equity. The proposed approach comprises three sets of reforms. The first deals with aligning the incentives of students, teachers, parents, bureaucrats and increasingly private sector education providers to provide high quality education. The second involves market reform to expand the demand for labor. The third and final set of reforms is aimed at corrections of market failure to ensure the efficient delivery of education equitably. To elaborate this view and solidify its foundations, the rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II takes stock of progress to date. Next, an attempt is made to explain the limitations of reforms to date. Section IV draws policy recommendations."
Added by: Agnès Cavet Last edited by: Agnès Cavet |
| Quotes |
| p.5 \"The proportion of students taking private lessons in 1997/98 was more than 51 percent of the total, including students of relatively poor socio-economic background (Table 3).\" Added by: Agnès Cavet |