Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi opened the Egyptian-Japanese University for Science and Technology in Alexandria’s city of Borg El Arab, as well as other private universities.
The president is also set to open other projects for the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the Ministry of Education.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, and other state officials attended the ceremony.
At the opening event, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said education is an issue of national security and represents a top priority for the government.
Madbouly said the state has invested 100 billion pounds in education, including higher education, over the past six years.
He said the state faces challenges in education such as the high number of students per classroom, poor education quality indicators, high illiteracy rates, and insufficient technical education schools
Egypt has about 30,000 schools, including 500,000 classes and 23.5 million students in these schools, Madbouli said, adding that a high percentage of classes have a number of students that exceeds their capacities.
Madbouly noted that 73,000 new classrooms, which would cost 40 billion Egyptian pounds, need to be established to reach an ideal ratio of students per class.
He added that 38 more universities are also needed to cope with population growth.
