The quality of school education has to be improved. Though in primary
schools the average number of pupils per class was forty-two in 1999/2000
(CAPMAS 2001b: 175), classes of sixty pupils are not uncommon, but owing
to the methods the teachers apply discipline is generally good. However,
since the percentage of children of compulsory school age is high at 17 per
cent of the total population, the state is confronted with a great financial
problem in having to provide the corresponding infrastructure for 12 million
young people. In Egypt public education is free at all levels up to university.
Although public expenditure on education decreased from 5.7 to 4.8 per
cent of GNP between 1980 and 1997 (ibid.), education consumed 14.7 per
cent of the state budget in 1999/2000. However, in the years 2000–2010 the
government needs to build 27,000 new schools, which would cost about
US$60 billion, while the state can afford only 25 per cent to 30 per cent
of this sum. Therefore, other – possibly private – sources will have to be
tapped (Tadros 2001).