School is in session at Cosmic Village: The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) on Thursday inaugurated four schools part of the first phase of the Cosmic Village development project, according to a pressrelease(pdf). The schools were set up under private-public partnerships between the SFE and private players in the education sector.

EEP is operating two schools: EFG Hermes-backed Egypt Education Platform (EEP) is managing two Mobica-constructed schools — Westview International Language Schooland Scholars International Language School. Mobica broke ground on the projects back in December 2021.

The other two schools are branches ofFutures Tech and Regent British School, which were set up by the Cairo Egypt for Education — a joint venture between our friends at CIRA Education and Elsewedy Capital (pdf) — with investments of EGP 350 mn.CIRA will manage the branch of Futures Tech, while the branch of Regent British School will be managed by Eduhive.

The Cosmic Village? The village sits on a once unutilized state-owned piece of real estate spanning 190 acres in Sixth of October. The SFE intends to turn the village into an “integrated educational hub” with the first phase consisting of establishing five schools and a sports club, the statement said. The Cosmic Village was put on the SFE’s investment menu in April 2021, after the fund added the land on which the village was built to the assets under its education sub-fund. Some 1k students have already begun attending the four schools within the complex, with a target of 10k students within the project’s first phase.

What about school five? The SFE will soon ink a partnership contract for the establishment of the first phase’s fifth school — a French institution.

More to come? The Madbouly government wants to support the development of 300 schools using the PPP model and is ready to make land available across Egypt’s governorates or provide already existing buildings, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said during the inauguration.

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