Egypt Children and School

Where do Egyptian children go to school?

Schooling is a fundamental right in Egypt and schooling should be free for all children. Schooling is compulsory in Egypt and all children must go to school up to the age of 15. Almost 90 out of 100 children between the ages of six and 14 attend school. So ten out of 100 children do not go to school. There are quite a few.

From elementary school to high school

Usually children in Egypt start school between the ages of six and seven. It’s no different from ours. Elementary school then goes up to 6th grade. From 7th to 9th grade, Egyptian children can attend secondary school, when they are around 13 to 15 years old.

The next level begins with grade 10 and goes up to grade 12, after which the young people can take the Abitur. The Egyptian high school diploma is called Thanawaya. If you want to go to university afterwards, you need very good grades and a good Abitur.

School uniform, textbooks and tutoring

The children in Egypt wear school uniforms. However, many parents cannot afford this at all. The school books are also very different from ours. The solutions are usually entered in the book, so that books cannot be used more than once. How can you then check whether you have solved the task correctly when the result is there? Many classes are overcrowded and the Egyptian teachers often earn less than a waiter. That is why some are not really interested in good teaching.

Many children actually have to take tutoring in order to be able to follow the subject matter. However, tutoring costs money in Egypt too, so poor families cannot afford additional lessons for their children.

School? Too expensive!

Unfortunately, since it is often assumed in Egypt that the boys will feed the families later than men, only the boys are sent to secondary schools and the girls are left out and do not receive an adequate education.

In addition, many families cannot afford their children to attend school because they are dependent on the money that the children earn. In Egypt, too, there are many single mothers and, above all, they often have to let their children work.

School attendance in Egypt is officially free, but still remains unaffordable for many people. One or the other family has to starve to enable their children to go to school. You can also read more about this under child labor in Egypt.

Child in Egypt

About 33 out of 100 people – about one in three – are under 14 years of age in Egypt. And children’s rights are still violated in Egypt. For example, 13 out of 100 Egyptian children are born underweight and poor children often lack the opportunity to go to school and they cannot visit a doctor or hospital. Medical care is poor.

1.7 million orphans live in Egypt who no longer have parents. But they somehow have to survive and that’s why they work. Especially with the cotton harvest. Here, children often have to work hard physically for eleven hours a day in a heat of over 40 degrees. Because of poverty, there are more and more children in Egypt who are forced to live on the streets. We do not know the exact figures here. It is estimated that around a million children eke out their lives on the streets. They go begging or commit petty theft. Many of these children are also abused and sexually abused.

Many girls are also still being circumcised. Female circumcision is still practiced in many parts of the country, although progress is slowly being made.

Big differences between rich and poor

However, not all children in Egypt are poor. There are also children who go to a good school. But only if the parents can afford it. Most of the time they then attend a private school, which costs money but also offers better education. Teachers are paid better and there is material for teaching. There are also children who later graduate from university with good results and maybe go abroad. The differences in Egypt are great, between adults and children.

Child labor

Why do children have to work in Egypt?

Child labor is still a very big problem for Egypt. There are two to three million children between the ages of six and 14 who have to work. There are also figures that assume seven million children. For example, you work as a street vendor in big cities like Cairo and Alexandria. If you travel to Egypt, you will see a lot of children working on the streets here. Most of the children work in agriculture. There they have to do hard physical work, for example in the fields. Some children also work as fishermen or coachmen.

Children are cheap labor, they do not contradict, do not form trade unions and usually have no one to protect them. Even if the law in Egypt actually forbids child labor, many families do not adhere to it, precisely because they are in great need. Children’s rights are not respected.

Questions and answers

Why are young girls often married early in Egypt?

It is officially forbidden in Egypt for very young girls to marry. A marriage is only possible from the age of 18. In 2008 the age was increased; previously the girls could marry at the age of 16. Even so, two out of 100 girls are married before they are 15 years old and 17 out of 100 before they are 18 years old. They are not asked whether they want it. Often very young girls have to marry very much older men.

But how can parents do that? The families are forced to do so because of their poverty. Many people in Egypt still live in great poverty. They marry off their daughters early and use the dowry to support the rest of the family. In addition, there is one less blackhead.

What happens to disabled children?

Disabled people, whether physically or mentally disabled, are often marginalized in Egypt. They live in poverty and are ashamed. For many parents, having a disabled child is “God’s punishment”.

This child will not be sent to school and in the end – like many other poor children – has to live on the street. There it is marginalized again because it is not as viable as the other children due to its disability.

Can Egyptian Children Go to Hospital?

If we compare medical care in Egypt with that in Germany, then it is certainly not particularly good there. Compared to other African countries, however, it is much better because there is at least one basic supply for all people and it is free according to the Egyptian constitution.

However, those who live in poverty or are unemployed are excluded. And since many people in Egypt live in poverty, very many are excluded. Those who are insured can go to a hospital. The others then sometimes pay with what they have, i.e. with a chicken or with vegetables, depending on what they have. Doctors make very little money in Egypt. However, attempts have been made in recent years to improve health care in Egypt so that more people survived and the population continues to grow.