35% of Egypt's middle-school students are illiterate: UN report

Around 35 percent of middle school students in Egypt do not know how to read and write, a recent report has revealed.

The Millennium Development Goals [MDG] progress report, issued by the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], found a number of reasons for the shockingly low figures.

The report, issued in cooperation with Egypt's Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Administrative Reform, blamed Egypt's failure to meet its education MDG target on the low quality of education.

The report concluded that Egypt was unlikely to realise its MDG targets for universal primary education by the end of 2015

This was reflected in several indicators, including that 30 percent of teachers in pre-university education in Egypt were under-qualified, indicating the "incompatibility of qualifications and specialisations with actual teaching needs."

Another indicator was the high classroom density rate, the average of which has reached 32 students per classroom in private schools, compared to 44 in public schools.

In addition, the report referred to the "stagnation of many educational curricula and their inability to keep pace with modern trends of education, science community and knowledge economy".

According to the report, net enrolment in primary education has declined from 95.4 percent in 2010/2011 to 90.6 percent in 2013/2014.

However, net enrolment preparatory education - or middle school - has improved with an average of about 82.1 percent over the years 2010/2011 to 2014/2015.

The report concluded that Egypt was unlikely to realise its MDG targets for universal primary education by the end of 2015.

In 2000, the UN issued the Millennium Declaration, which was adopted by 189 member states, including Egypt, and more than 20 international organisations aiming to achieve the minimum level of development by 2015 through the adoption of the MDGs.

Along with the achievement of universal primary education, the eight goals of the MDGs include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women; the reduction of child mortality; the improvement of maternal health; the combating of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; the ensuring of environmental sustainability; and the establishment of a global partnership for development.