If 2022 was the year of inflation and cost pressures, 2023 was all that and more — plus AI. Over the past twelve months, inflation has been on the rise, cooling only in the past two months, while a compounding FX shortage has piled on the pressure for school operators and parents alike. The education sector has also been adapting over the past months to the advent of new technology (specifically generative AI), while digitization and tech have penetrated other corners of the sector.

Tight caps on private school fees didn’t budge: Ahead of the current school year, the government tightened restrictions on fee rises for high-end international private schools, barring schools that charge EGP 35k and above from raising fees by more than 6%. This was bad news for schools, which are grappling with a perfect storm of inflation, soaring land prices, and USD-denominated costs including salaries and online tools. Some schools hiked fees outside of tuition, while others have reportedly been using a loophole in the system, reporting higher tuition fees than they actually charge, to give themselves leeway to raise fees when they need to.

But non-banking financial sectors have come to the rescue of many parents, offering more funding solutions such as tuition loans and low-interest bridge loans that allow parents to pay in installments.

On the higher education front, private universities have also left fees unchangedfor the 2023-24 academic year, with some institutions also offering scholarship and grant programs to students as the country continues to grapple with the challenging macroeconomic climate. Tuition fees at private universities are set independently, but guidelines are set to avoid drastic fee hikes.

New schools are a-building (just not as many): Less than two weeks into the year, education investment JV Al Ahly CIRA partnered with the Canadian Seneca College to open schools in both East and West Cairo. Also in January, the Egyptian Education Platform announced that a GEMS Education-branded British school will open in Palm Hills Developments’ Badya, becoming the first school in the West Cairo compound. Nevertheless, constraints caused by the macroeconomic climate have caused a slowdown in plans to build new private schools, primarily as a result of the tailspin the construction industry has been sent into as a result of the soaring cost and shortage of building materials.

On the government policy + spending side: The government’s FY 2023-24 budget saw education, higher education, and scientific research spending accounting for 23.1% of the EGP 3 tn planned for spending throughout the year. The focus is on plugging teacher shortages, education infrastructure, and tech. Meanwhile, the Higher Education Ministry’s Supreme Council of Private Universities made official its decision to scrap the centralized admissions platform that imposed a Tansik-style system for private and nonprofit universities, two years after it introduced the platform.

This year was marked by the rise of generative AI as an accessible tool, which had a tangible effect on the education landscape. While policies to regulate the use of AI have started to be codified in schools abroad, Egypt is slow to catch up in that regard. So far, schools are prioritizing raising awareness to offset the risks of using AI, whether in terms of privacy and cybersecurity or academic integrity. Comprehensive evaluation schemes — including a comeback for on-the-spot and oral work — are being used to avoid excessive student reliance on AI tools. Nevertheless, there seems to be consensus among teachers that a blanket ban is neither practical nor probable.

With the advent of AI, e-learning platforms have remained a staple despite the arguable slowdown of the covid-19 digital learning boom. Schools’ use of learning management systems like Google Classroom, Seesaw, and Class Dojo has been growing, as has demand for local e-learning apps like Orcas, Madrasty, and even household names like Aladwaa and Selah El Telmeez, which have gone digital. These technologies are designed to supplement what schools offer by providing more tailored and individualized learning approaches.

Digital payment for education is also on the rise, with fintech startups like Klickit and Spare leading the way in the field, making it easier for parents to complete school-related transactions digitally. While more common in private and international schools, this trend has also reached public schools.

There’s a ton of public-private partnership activity in the sector: The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) inaugurated four schools as part of the first phase of the Cosmic Village development project in November. The schools were set up under private-public partnerships between the SFE and private players in the education sector. The SFE also inked a partnership contract with educational services company Tanweer for the establishment of the first phase’s fifth school. The Education Ministry also has plans to expand its Nile Egyptian International Schools through partnerships with the private sector, by allowing private schools to set up new divisions that apply the Nile School curriculum.

And vocational education is really having its moment in the sun: The Education Ministry recently launched a strategy to grow the number of vocational schools in Egypt and introduced a package of incentives and perks designed to reel in more private sector partners to develop these schools. In response to the boom in demand in the local real estate sector, a number of real estate developers have begun to set up real estate “schools,” high-school level programs that teach construction, finishing, landscaping, and other areas of study concerned with real estate development. ElSewedy EdTech is working to set up a new university, ElSewedy University of Technology - Polytechnic of Egypt, in partnership with Amity University of Dubai (AUD). The university will rely on a polytechnic educational model.

Your top education stories for the week:

  • Egypt Education Platform teams up with football academy: EFG Hermes-backed Egypt Education Platform (EEP) is set to offer academic programs at football academy Right to Dream Egypt. (Press release)
  • Parli Italiano? Egypt and Italy have inked an MoU to introduce Italian as an elective second language in public schools starting the 2024-2025 academic year. (Education Ministry Statement)
  • Global NGO cooks up USD 2 mn education grant for Sudanese children:Emergency education fund Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is extending a USD 2 mn 12-month grant to the government — via the UNHCR — to help it provide school-age Sudanese refugees in Egypt with education. (ECW statement)
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