Approximately 40 percent of the students at Abul Mahasen al-Shazly School in Marsa Alam have been absent since the beginning of the academic year due to searching for gold.
Naguib Sallam, the school principal, says parents are taking their children on trips to search for gold in the Eastern Desert or having them hired to search for gold with illegal gangs.
He added that students are increasingly dropping out of schools and that large numbers of parents are lured to let their children go search for gold in return for the money.
During a visit by the Red Sea Governor Ahmed Abdallah to al-Sheikh al-Shazly, a village located 150 kilometers south west of Marsa Alam, Naguib said that some students came to school with sums of money as large as LE200 which they gain from gold exploration. He said this phenomenon is causing students to drop out of school, and he called for punishing parents who cause their children to drop out.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
