IMPACT-se has released its most comprehensive report to date on the Egyptian national school curriculum, which evaluated 271 textbooks published between 2018 and 2023. The study focuses on Arabic language, Islamic and Christian religious education, social studies, Values and Respect for the Other, history, geography, philosophy, and more. The research comes amid an ongoing year-by-year reform of the Egyptian national curriculum between 2018 and 2030 across all grades (as yet up to grade 5), and found that the reformed curriculum shows highly positive change thus far. The report explores attitudes toward peace and tolerance, the Jewish and Christian Other, and both contemporary and past foreign policy. It evaluates the perception of domestic issues like population density; the revolutions of January 2011 and June 2013; the depiction of Israel; and the role of gender in Egyptian society. The report focuses on seven thematic categories: “Curricular Reform,” “General Perceptions of War and Peace,” “Society and Politics following a Decade of Upheaval,” “Treatment of the ‘Other’,” “Domestic Challenges,” “Status of Women,” and “Regional and International Outlook.” Report
“Egypt Enhances It’s Peace Education, One Step at a Time”
By Ofir Winter — March 3, 2016
Ofir Winter’s IMPACT-se-commissioned response to the February 17, 2016 Times of Israel article titled “In a First, New Egyptian Schoolbook Teaches Peace Deal with Israel.” IMPACT-se Brief
“Inculcating Islamist Ideals in Egypt”
The Middle East Quarterly – Fall 2015 (PDF, 333 kb)
Dr. Yohanan Manor revisits the Egyptian curriculum of the Mubarak era and puts it in historical perspective. The article convincingly demonstrates how years of under-the-radar official Islamist mass education (featuring jihad and anti-Christian teachings) thwarted a smooth transformation to democracy in Egypt. Instead, this curriculum led to political turmoil, coupled with violence against the country’s indigenous Coptic citizens. This research, published in the Middle East Quarterly, displays the critical role of education in shaping reality on the ground. Education and the attitudes of curricula toward others should be factored into any strategic analysis
Previous Survey
Jews, Christians, War and Peace in Egyptian School Textbooks
By IMPACT-se — March 2004
This reports surveys 103 Egyptian textbooks for use in state schools and 16 textbooks for use in the religious Azharite school system. The majority of the books were published in 2002.
- Full Report (pdf, 12.8 mb)
- Bibliography (pdf, 106 kb)