Egyptian teachers in public schools are seriously under-paid. This makes
them neglect their work and look for additional sources of income to feed
their own families. Many parents pay high sums for private lessons for their
children because they want them to succeed in the annual exams. Organ-
ized private lessons have come to form a parallel institution to the public
school system. Some teachers earn more from private lessons than from
their work in school. The state tried to stop this, applying drastic measures.
However, without an increase in teachers’ salaries the problem cannot be
solved. Good Egyptian teachers find work easily in the Arab countries.
• Education in the professional schools is neither up to date nor adapted to
the labour market. This is why job opportunities for the graduates are not
good and businesses have to train their own personnel.
• For financial reasons the state is unable to offer the necessary number of
places in universities for high-school graduates. So new specialized private
professional training colleges have been opened, but relatively high fees
have to be paid to enter them.