The Teachers Syndicate Liberation Front said there are 16,000 public school buildings threatened with collapse.
Ina statement issued on Friday, the organization also warned that the annual increase in the number of private schools, in addition to the decrease in public schools, and the introduction of tuition for public experimental schools, indicates that the government intends to privatize education, whereby the poor would have to pay for it.
Other education fronts, including the Egyptian Teachers Union, consider the decision of Education Minister Moheb al-Rafey to rent the buffets of public schools to a Saudi investor next year to be a confirmation of the government’s intention to privatize public schools, a strategy they said was planned under former President Hosni Mubarak.
Ayman al-Bialy, General Coordinator of the Teachers Syndicate Liberation Front, said it is difficult to restore the 16,000 buildings once the schoolyear has started. “Classes cannot be held in the middle of construction works,” he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
