Education in Egypt has to become a national project adopted by the president, Mamdouh Shoukri, president and vice-chancellor of Canada’s York University, tells Al Shorouk. Shoukri, an Egyptian by birth, is concerned about the spread of religious education in Egypt across the different age grades and says it hinders innovation. Al Azhar should focus solely on religious studies, he suggests. He says education reform begins with primary education and refused any security interference in appointing universities’ leadership. Shoukri also added that, while he thinks curricula in Egyptian universities are “ok,” it is the memorisation-based teaching method that is antiquated and inadequate.