University teachers criticized the government for reducing allocations for funding education and scientific research in next year’s state budget, saying the sector is crucial to development and should be given no less than an annual 5 percent of GDP throughout the coming 20 years.
“First the government says it’s giving priority to education,” said Professor Mohamed Abul Ghar. “Then it reduces its budget and increases that of the interior ministry.”
Abul Ghar explained that allocations for education and scientific research are currently no more than 3.4 percent of the state budget, which means that funding has been reduced by 40 percent over the past few years.
“It seems that, in the government’s view, public order, not education, is what will achieve development for this country,” Ghar said, adding that scientific research in Egypt relies on sporadic individual efforts.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
