During basic education...

During basic education, students learn manners and some academic content (like language, communication, agriculture, and industrial skills) in this manner (Leavitt, 1992, p.97). In preparatory and secondary education, the curriculum changes little, aside from an increased workload and having the opportunity to specialize during the last year (in general secondary education).

In Al-Azhar schools, curriculum consists of the same Ministry of Education and Learning curriculum with added Islamic sciences. The minute percentage that can afford Western private schools either receive a Western curriculum, usually in English or French, or a language acquisition curriculum; there are some special education schools as well (Leavitt, 1992, p.98).

Regarding Universities, Said laments: “Universities in the Arab world are generally run according to some pattern inherited from, or once directly imposed by, a former colonial power…classes populated with hundreds of students, badly trained, overworked, and underpaid faculty, political appointments, the almost total absence of advanced research and of research facilities, and most important, the lack of a single decent library in the entire region…the few promising students who manage to make it through the system are encouraged to come to the United States to continue their advanced work…the patronage system in scholarship, business, and research makes the United States a virtual hegemonic commander of affairs…the Arabic and Islamic world remains a second-order power in terms of the production of culture, knowledge, and scholarship” (Said, 1979, pgs.

322-323). This is how Edward Said described Higher Education in the Middle East in 1979 and it has not particularly changed much except for the fact that all of these issues have only gotten worse, primarily due to authoritarian political regimes that hinder any possible change that might put their power at risk, lack of planning/organization in ministries of education, widespread corruption, lack of resources, and the population boom mentioned previously (Christina, 2003).

There are many issues that need to be addressed in Egyptian education including curriculum (Herrera & Torres, 2006, p.